Sarah Palin accepts Martin Bashir's apology

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Ex-Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin said Sunday MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir's on-air rant about her doesn't "have to affect" her, but questions his lack of punishment.

Bashir's remarks were in response to a Nov. 9 speech Palin gave, in which she compared the federal deficit to slavery.

"The definition of slavery is to be beholden to a master," Palin reiterated her point in an appearance Sunday on Fox News "Sunday." "And we will be beholden when that note is due, when we have taken from our children and our grandchildren and borrowed from China and other foreign countries in order to pay for our wants today. So we will be beholden to another master at some point here when that note's due."

Bashir said on his show after her original speech that Palin is a "dunce" and "world-class idiot" who deserves to have her mouth urinated and defecated in, in the way 18th century slaves were abused by their masters.

"Everybody in life takes shots," Palin said of how Bashir's remarks affected her. "You have a decision to make when you take a shot. Are you going to become bitter or better? In a case like this, you know, I don't have to accept his words, his vile, evil comments, so they don't have to affect me. I move on. And I charge forth."

Bashir offered an apology to Palin, saying his "words were wholly unacceptable."

Palin said she accepted the apology, but she questions why he wasn't punished by MSNBC, which recently pulled the plug on Alec Baldwin's talk show after he made a homophobic slur.

"As for the ... the networks condoning those types of statements, because there's been no punishment of the fella who said these words, that's hypocrisy," she said.