I think that one thing we fail to account for is people's anger when they inveigh about a person or a person's actions. That was exemplified recently in the form of Kramer's outburst against a couple of black guys. He was angry, justifiably or not, and expressed his anger in a way that he felt would hurt those guys, would get back at them - race. As a paisan, I would expect that someone's anger at me might be expressed in the form of an ethnic slur. But I would have enough presence of mind to understand that such expression does not necessarily have its roots in ethnic prejudice. If I were mad at a womean, I might express that anger by calling her a Bit*h. But, that expression does not have its root in mysoginism.

Kay was angry and justifiably so. Her husband was a bold-faced murderer. Her words were intended to inform and hurt. She used her linguistics to express that anger. It didn't have anything to do with ethnic prejudice.

On the other hand, I think that Geary's statements were an effort to mitigate what was, in hindsight, one hell of an error on his part. He was scared and he tried using words to mitigate his circumstamces. As an anglo unsteeped in ethnic traditions and, in this case, Sicilian tradition, he clumsily conveyed the message to Michael that, while not being Michael's friend, he was no longer his enemy, that he had been admonished and now knew the limits of his power as a US Senator.