Dave's apology

You know who I felt bad for, watching David Letterman's shocking confession from last night? Kanye West.

Bear with me.

West did a pretty obnoxious thing a couple of weeks ago, stealing the microphone from Taylor Swift at the VMAs and telling the world that Beyonce should have won. He was rebuked in real-time -- every time his name was mentioned that night, the crowd booed -- and he got really contrite, really quickly. There was the all-caps apology on his blog. The awkward, emotional turn on Jay Leno's couch the next night. He accepted the fury. He clearly felt bad. He promised to change. I was ready to forgive.

What Letterman confessed to was worse, much worse; no one deserves to be extorted, but Dave admitted to having sexual affairs, more than one of them, with people on his staff. That's arguably sexual harrassment. It was horrid to his wife and son. And yet the people at the Ed Sullivan Theater yesterday -- who were likely confused and bewildered as Letterman spun out his story, half-serious, half-tongue-in-cheek -- did a lot of laughing. A lot. They rewarded the end of his speech with a huge round of applause. Did they feel bad about it afterward? Will they turn on Letterman now? Will they at least demand that he appear more contrite? Or will he get a global pass, for the unfair reason that he happened to deliver his confession in a funny and self-deprecating way?