Chicks-ee Dix-ee

I don't follow the Dixie Chicks much (except for the political trouble they had not long ago) and I didn't watch more than a glimpse of the Grammy Awards show.

But the media's video bites which reviewed the Dixie Chicks' attitude during their acceptance appearances seemed extremely odd to me.

I think the Chicks have mistaken their amazing luck, to be offered forgiveness and a second chance in the market, as some kind of national apology from the fans.

I have no doubt that NOBODY, outside of the lead singer of Dixie Chicks, believes that version of things as they are.

I have no doubt the Chicks are delighted to have rehabilitated their career and made a comeback. The political skirmish was years ago, and Americans have settled our views and moved on. It was the Chicks who did the catching up with the times, even playing up their own past disgrace with a hit single, generic enough to be a mainstream country hit, about not being "ready to make nice." "Tears in My Ears" had nothing on this Chicks hit song.

The mouthy one's mimicking of the Simpsons' "Ha-ha" at the Grammy awards microphone was bizarre, considering that the Grammy vote is tiny and insular, and considering that nothing has changed for them in the real world except that a lot of listeners were just starting to get over their irritation.

Practically everybody in the world who voted those Grammy Awards to the Dixie Chicks WERE IN THE THEATER on awards night -- a theater not much bigger than most Midwestern "girls gyms," where countless small-time sock hops have determined the success or failure of local romances for decades.

That's all.

And the Grammy show wasn't the Grand Ole Opry, folks. It was an auditorium in true-blue Los Angeles, California.

So, a few thousand record industry liberals vote an act called the Dixie Chicks some awards as a political statement.

Then the Chicks nearly snatch defeat from the jaws of their comeback by militantly misinterpreting a one-night theaterful of blue-state Grammy voters as a nationwide vindication of their dead-horse politics.

As I said: Odd. Bizarre. And that's the generous summation.

The Chicks would have done far better if they had accepted their awards with humility, grace -- and no little measure of gratitude for the unusual second chance -- without the sour grapes, and just been thankful an audience took them back for another album.

When one foot finally heals is not the time to shoot yourself in the other foot.