Transparency of the President

THE PRESIDENT: It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something. The president called Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, to say he was sorry. "He expressed his disappointment, and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population," Shriver said today on ABC's "Good Morning America."

The President promised the people even before becoming president that he was not perfect and would certainly make mistakes, but to hear a high official of the government make so public an apology is transparency at its zenith.

The Talmud-Book of Law records the following story. Rebbe Shimon (author of the Zohar-Book of Secret) once remarked on the ugliness of a particular man to which the man replied: God created me. Rebbe followed the man into town continually prostrating himself before the man begging for forgiveness. The great Rebbe humbled before the ugly man who refused to forgive him; when the townsfolk saw this perfidy they persuaded the man to comply.