Minnesota House majority leader Matt Dean has issued a halfhearted apology to fantasy author Neil Gaiman for calling him a “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.”
Earlier this week, Dean criticized Minnesota’s House Legacy Funding Division for paying Gaiman to appear at a speaking engagement.
Dean told Minnesota Public Radio: “[My mom] was very angry this morning and always taught me to not be a name caller. And I shouldn’t have done it, and I apologize.” Dean still insisted that the author should have “donated his time” to the patrons of the Stillwater Library.
Gaiman responded in a blog post: “He’s apologised for calling me names, he says, because his mother made him. (He doesn’t seem to have apologised for calling me a thief.) He also says that, as a rich person, I should also do some charity work, which sort of dropped my jaw. At this point, I’m just glad his mother (of whom, I must say, I am now a fan) didn’t bring him round to my house with a hand on his collar and make him apologise in front of my whole family, while clearing her throat and giving him meaningful glances the whole time.”