Let's assume for a moment that Dr. Laura Schlessinger
                   is truly sorry she said things that insulted gay people.

                   Let's assume the ultra-successful radio talk-show
                   host didn't buy a full-page ad in Monday's Daily
                   Variety, admitting some of her words about homosexuality were
                   "poorly chosen" just because counterattacks from the gay
                   community have driven dozens of advertisers away from her new
                   television show.

                   Let's assume she isn't simply setting things up so that if the show
                   fails — and right now, it's performing like a Firestone tire — she
                   can blame gay activists instead of admitting it just isn't very interesting.

                   But even if her motives are pure, let's not forget the root of this
                   face-off between Laura and the gay community: She called
                   homosexuality a "biological error," which is about as belittling as it
                   gets, then strongly implied that since her source is the Bible,
                   anyone who disagrees should take it up with the Lord.

                                  It's not uncommon for people with a media
                                  following, be they TV anchors, radio hosts or
                                  newspaper columnists, to develop a
                                  heightened sense of self-importance. This goes
                                  over the top.

                                  True, one of Schlessinger's signatures as a
                                  radio host has always been a "because I said
                                  so" attitude: I'm Dr. Laura and you're not.

                                  True also, a lecture is what many callers need.
                   Moreover, she can be sympathetic and funny, and much of her
                   advice stems from an inarguable if unoriginal principle: Take
                   responsibility for your own life.

                   When an interviewer recently asked Schlessinger about some of her
                   own stumbles — posing nude for a married boyfriend, not speaking to
                   her mother — she shrugged it off: "I never said I was divine."

                   Fair answer — except sometimes she sounds as if she thinks her words are.

                   Concerning gays, she says all species are designed to reproduce.
                   Those lacking the instinct can be good people, but they're not
                   what people are meant to be.

                   You don't have to be a militant lesbian or a nervous ad agency buyer
                   to be troubled here. You only have to realize that the message she's conveying,
                   in common-sense plain English, is appalling.

                   And she's far too smart not to know it.

                   That's one reason gay groups don't buy that she's really sorry. The
                   Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, alluding to her
                   comment that the controversy "has been personally and
                   professionally devastating to me," says she's missing the point:

                   "Laura Schlessinger once again blames others for the impact of her
                   rhetoric, refusing to take responsibility for her precisely chosen,
                   scientifically inaccurate descriptions of gay and lesbian lives."

                   Whatever's growing here, she planted the seeds.