For Pete's sake

I'm not about to defend the joke that Pete Davidson made at the expense of (now-)Congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw last week on Saturday Night Live.  Pete himself seems to realize it was a bad joke, and instead of retreating behind a wall of press agents, he sat there on the Update this week and took it right back, with an apology to Crenshaw and a chance for Crenshaw to fire back, which he did with pretty good accuracy.

And they didn't stop there with the apology. Crenshaw was a Navy SEAL who lost his eye in Afghanistan, and Pete, until his celebrated short romance with Ariana Grande, was best known as the young guy on SNL whose firefighter father was killed on 9/11.  And they made a sincere talk about the need for unity at a time when this country needs it more than ever.

First, though, if you need to see the tale of how the whole sad story evolved, check it here.

I think Crenshaw made a lot of sense when he said, "I want us to get away from this culture where we demand an apology every time someone misspeaks" after pointing out that our veterans "probably don't feel as though their wounds they received in battle should be the subject of a bad punchline."

And Davidson met that with," I mean this from the bottom of my heart. It was a poor choice of words. The man is a war hero, and he deserves all the respect in the world." The comedian added, "And if any good came of this, maybe it was that for one day, the left and the right finally came together to agree on something. That I'm a d---."

And then the professional comic sat back and let the politician throw figurative water balloons at him, getting in jibes about Davidson's looks and so forth and even using an Ariana tune for Crenshaw's ringtone. All in good humor, all taken like two mature men.

And then, Crenshaw made more sense than I've heard from anyone lately: "There's a lot of lessons to learn here. Not just that the left and right can still agree on some things. But also, this: Americans can forgive one another." He mentioned the sacrifice both of military veterans and "those we lost on 9/11, heroes like Pete's father."

Let's try to remember what Congressman-elect Crenshaw said: "We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other."

Really!