Political pundit Bill O'Reilly half honored his public pledge to 'apologize for being an idiot' if the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate in President Obama's health care law.

O'Reilly made originally made his vow in March as a measure of his confidence that the Court would find the mandate unconstitutional.

Much to his surprise it did not however play out that way. Chief Justice John Roberts found that it could be upheld as a tax or penalty rather than through the scope of the Commerce Clause.

According to the Huffington Post, O'Reilly took his time making good on his pledge. He was on vacation was last week, though he did call in to his own show to talk with temporary host Laura Ingraham about his reaction to the ruling.

Then on Monday night however he finally owned up.

'I’m not really sorry, but I am a man of my word, so I apologize for not factoring in the John Roberts situation,' he said.

'Truthfully, I never in a million years thought the chief justice would go beyond the scope of the Commerce Clause debate and into taxation. I may be an idiot for not considering that.'

May be is not quite I am, so O'Reilly offered a rather qualified apology. Bantering with frequent guest Bernie Goldberg over his reaction to the ruling O'Reilly lamented the left wing websites that called him on his refusal to call himself an idiot.

'You may be many things Bill, but naive isn't one of them,' Goldberg soothed. 'You made a big, loud prediction, so of course they're going to go after you.'