Green Party Leader Elizabeth May's Vulgarity

Much has been made recently about federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May’s performance at the annual Press Gallery Dinner in Ottawa on May 9, 2015. The dinner lets politicians poke fun at themselves and at the media in a good-hearted way, to let them show they don’t necessarily dislike each other.

In the aftermath of the dinner, much has also been made by commentators, and by May herself, of her weak attempts at being funny at the dinner in her overall on-stage performance--most of which the general public never saw. Yet, in seeming to focus on these aspects of May’s performance, she appears to ignore, or at least downplay, her public crudity and vulgarity at the microphone.

The Leader's True Colors?
In a film clip widely-broadcast, the Green Party’s May showed what might be her true colors: she crudely proclaimed into the microphone, on-camera, that Omar Khadr, the former so-called child soldier who was released on bail from prison last week, has “more class than the whole f------ Cabinet.” 

Presumably May was alluding to the federal government’s ongoing efforts to keep Khadr locked up, and to prevent him from being released on bail. Mercifully, May was finally dragged from the stage and microphone—figuratively—by a member of that “f------ Cabinet,” Lisa Raitt, who purportedly is also one of May’s friends.

Bad Behavior
In the film clip showing May making her crude comment about the federal Cabinet, she looked and sounded mean and mean-spirited, and she also looked drunk; or at least as though she’d had too much to drink.

Since then, though, May has said she wasn’t drunk at the microphone but conceded she had been drinking to some extent beforehand. Of course she might be right, but from my experience most people who are, or were drunk when they did something wrong, usually deny they were drunk.

One More for the Road?
In addition, Rick Mercer, the noted comedian/commentator, was quoted on Twitter as saying May wasn’t drunk: “I sat w @ElizabethMay @ Gallery dinner as did @TonyclementCPC - she wasn't drunk. She was tired & falling asleep in her soup.#longnight”

No doubt Mercer’s intentions are good in defending May, but how can he know she wasn’t drunk? Can Mercer know for sure that May did not drink before the dinner?  
In fact, some people can be drunk but don’t look as though they are. And some people who have a low tolerance for alcohol could be drunk and could seem drunk after drinking very little alcohol.
If May did drink before arriving at the dinner, and then consumed more alcohol at the dinner, she could have been drunk or at least 'under the influence' at the microphone in using poor judgment, crudity, and vulgarity to compare Khadr to the "whole f------- Cabinet." 

Excuses, Excuses
A key problem with May’s attempt to explain her behavior, presumably including her crude and vulgar crack about the “whole f------ Cabinet,” is she keeps making excuses for her inexcusable behavior—all the while claiming she’s not making excuses. 
Thus, May seemed to downplay and ignore her specific vulgar comment comparing Khadr to the federal Cabinet--which was in the short film clip that was widely-broadcast.

May claims she was sleep-deprived and had a cold, which she suggests were the reasons her performance wasn't funny. In saying this she implied her crude crack comparing Khadr to the "whole f------- Cabinet" was also meant to be funny. 
This kind of thinking, in itself, seems evidence of at least May's poor judgment, and possibly her immaturity as well. Regardless, when she attributes her 'performance' to sleep deprivation and having a cold she seems to be making excuses for what she did and said, even though she claims she isn't making excuses.
An Honest Mistake?

Since May's public crudity and vulgarity about the “whole f-------- Cabinet,” she has tried to portray herself as the one person in the House of Commons who is on the fast-track to sainthood: “I never heckle. I never swear. So, I had gotten the idea that it would be funny skit material if I was different from how I really am," she said (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/elizabeth-may-s-press-gallery-dinner-speech-will-haunt-her-experts-say-1.3070377).

Sadly, this seems like yet another excuse May is using in trying, unsuccessfully, to convince the rest of us she isn’t making excuses for her behavior. She has also tried, to no avail, to be convincing in saying she accepts full responsibility for her behavior. 
Unfortunately, May doesn't seem to realize that in using excuse after excuse, she appears to accept little or no responsibility for what she did.