[mississippi red-neck]

When did we become such an unforgiving people?"

If he thinks he hasn't done anything wrong why does he seek forgiveness?

[BonnieJ]

We have always been forgiving of criminals...after they've served their time!

[capydick]

"When did we become such an unforgiving people?" Out of all of his self-serving speech,this line pissed me off the most. I was screaming in the car:

When you and your fellow RATS have taken huge advantage of the American peoples good nature and tendency to forgive and used it for corrupt purposes.

That's the point when we become unforgiving you scumbag.

[quebecois]

"If he hasn't done anything wrong, why does he seek forgiveness?"

Darn good question. In my religious tradition, forgiveness can only be achieved through a three step process:

1) confess: You have to 'fess up....if you don't admit you did something wrong, you can't be forgiven.

2) commitment: you have to make a commitment that you will change the behavior. Asking for forgiveness while intending to do the same thing over again is "trying to pull a fast one on God"

3) contrition: you have to accept a just punishment. you did the crime, now you have to do the time.

In the age of Clinton, our society has gotten pretty darn sloppy with its "forgiveness philosophy". We allow guys like Torch to use the concept of forgiveness, not in its genuine sense, but rather as a guilt-weapon to attack those who are justifiably questioning bad behavior.