Corsi apologized "if anybody was offended" by slurs; vanished from Hannity & Colmes lineup

Jerome R. Corsi, PhD, co-author of the forthcoming Regnery book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, apologized during interviews with ABC Radio Networks host Sean Hannity and the Associated Press on August 10 for comments he posted on the conservative online forum FreeRepublic.com -- comments first exposed by Media Matters for America on August 6.

In his interview on The Sean Hannity Show, Corsi said, "I apologize if anybody was offended by anything I said." Corsi then classified his comments (which included calling Pope John Paul II "senile"; asking if Senator "HELLary" Clinton is "a lesbo or anything"; and calling Muslims "RAGHEADS" and "Boy-Bumpers") as "silly," saying he "thought they were jokes" and complaining that they were taken "completely out of context."

Notwithstanding Corsi's explanations, the book's other author, John E. O'Neill, appeared to try to distance himself from Corsi. During an interview with substitute host Pat Buchanan on the August 10 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, O'Neill claimed: "The co-author of my book, who is simply an editor and not really any sort of co-author -- there are stories in circulation about his e-mails where he made stupid statements in his e-mails."

On the August 9 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, Hannity stated that "both of those authors [O'Neill and Corsi] are going to be here tomorrow night for their first television interview." However, on August 10, only O'Neill appeared on the program.

—J.C.