Sorry about that whole slavery thing...

But no reparations!

The U.S. House and Senate are both working on bills that would officially apologize for slavery. The wording of the Senate bill specifically prohibits the use of the apology in the search for reparations.

"Cohen said he and Harkin worked closely with the NAACP and other civil rights groups on language that would not endorse or preclude any future claims to reparations. "It will not harm reparations but won't give any standing to it," Cohen said."

Republicans were generally supportive, though one political science professor who spent time lobbying Bush to make the apology said it will be virtually meaningless coming from the Democrats because they are generally supported by African Americans and currently have a partially African American president.

Next up: Apologies for American Indians, Japanese Americans, most of Latin America, Iran...