After Randy Neugebauer got deservedly reamed for his disgraceful treatment of a National Park Service Ranger at the World War II Memorial, the Texas Republican had the decency to apologize.
Neugebauer's office said he reached out soon after the October 2 incident to get the ranger's contact information to apologize in person, but they did not hear back from the Park Service until this week due to the shutdown.
According to Neugebauer's spokesperson, Heather Vaughan, the Park Service told his office that the ranger requested to stay anonymous and preferred the congressman write a letter to the director of the NPS, rather than call her personally.
In the letter, dated Thursday, October 17, Neugebauer wrote that he was "caught up" in emotion after seeing veterans turned away from the memorial, and "my tone was inappropriate."
"I regret how I handled that situation, and I would like to offer you my apologies," he added.
Read the full letter
here. To Neugebauer's credit, this isn't a weak sauce letter. None of this "sorry if anyone was offended" nonsense either.
What makes it more significant is that was little prospect of Neugebauer being held to account for his behavior. For those who don't know, he represents a district anchored by Lubbock and Abilene. Even by Texas standards, this area is insanely Republican--at R+26, it would probably vote for a fire truck if it ran as a Republican just because it's red.
Now if only Neugebauer showed the same sense of decency all the time. After all, he was one of the loudest supporters of the "defund Obamacare" drive--in fact, he cosponsored one of the bills. No doubt he knew full well that it would run the risk of causing the very shutdown that had him in such a tizzy.