Conservatives now including Mr. Limbaugh continue to fall for Apology Gothcha game thinking the demand for apology is sincere and may end the matter.

.
Update, Surprise! Ms. Fluke says Limbaugh apology is meaningless. "Ms Fluke rejected his latest apology. "I don't think that a statement like this, issued saying that his choice of words was not the best, changes anything," she told ABC News' The View on Monday. "Especially when that statement is issued when he's under significant pressure from his sponsors, who have begun to pull support from his show.""

"Conservatives seem surprised that even a heartfelt apology doesn't make the problem go away." eg. "I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices."

3/3/12, "The Apology-Gotcha Game," American Thinker, Ned Barnett

"There is nothing new about the Apology-Gotcha Game. Yet time and again, conservatives buckle under to the demands of those who are "offended" and respond to the media as if they were actually guilty of something.

What is amazing about this phenomenon is:

1. How many times conservatives act like the demand for an apology is sincere,

2. How many times conservatives actually deliver on the demanded apology, and

3. How many times conservatives seem surprised that even a heartfelt apology doesn't make the problem go away.

On the other hand, when conservatives feel that they have been "offended" by something that a progressive or politically correct icon says and try to play the Apology-Gotcha Game, it's amazing....

The most recent ill-advised example of outraged conservatives trying to play the Apology-Gotcha Game, and being disappointed when their demand for an apology is ignored, revolves around the Huffington Post columnist Larry Doyle's "satiric" column, "The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum."...

With the exception of Fox News, the media is largely ignoring this issue. Usually, conservatives know better than to play the Apology-Gotcha game.

Rather than trying to play the game and hoping that the problem will disappear, stand firm on principle. Don't joke about it, don't play along with the media, and -- unless you've really done or said something wrong that you feel remorse for -- don't apologize. Explain the truth as you see it, batten down the hatches, and prepare to ride out the storm. You will suffer storm-damage, but if you maintain your integrity, you will survive with your honor intact, and your friends still on your side.

Bottom line: the Apology-Gotcha Game, generally featuring an outraged progressive victim demanding a public apology from a conservative antagonist, is nothing more than a cynical way of generating publicity and exerting power. The apology itself -- or the refusal to issue an apology -- is merely a way of keeping score. The only way you can lose is to cave in on your principles, ignore the truth, and hope that an insincere public apology will actually solve the problem.

As a postscript, one final note: while many of his opponents believe that President Obama has become our "apologizer in chief," he doesn't play the Apology-Gotcha Game. When he apologizes, he's not giving in to the demands of some group he's offended. Rather, he uses official apologies for different reasons -- reasons having nothing to do with the "Apology-Gotcha Game."

.