Bob Johnson, the controversial founder of BET, apologized Thursday to Sen. Barack Obama for his impromptu remarks four days ago criticizing the Democratic presidential candidate's admitted drug use as a teenager and referring to Obama as Sidney Poitier.

"I'm writing to apologize to you and your family personally for the un-called-for comments I made at a recent Clinton event," Johnson said in a statement. "In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made some very inappropriate remarks, for which I am truly sorry. I hope that you will accept this apology. Good luck on the campaign trail."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded Thursday, saying, "Obama accepts the apology. We're going to leave it at that."

But some black political observers said Johnson’s apology fell short.

"A letter isn't enough, it should be a public apology, with a handshake and a hug," Charles Ellison, chief editor and senior fellow for Blackpolicy.org, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday.

"That was raw and just wrong on Johnson's part," Ellison said. "Who is he to talk, considering his network set the standard for glorifying certain types of behavior in the community, including drug and street gangster, hustler and pimp culture?"

"Given the impact of drug addiction, drug trading, disproportionate drug sentencing and alcoholism in the African-American community, the last thing any of us -- including Bob Johnson –- should be doing is criticizing any brother or sister who actually beat their addiction," he said.

Ellison said many black Americans have friends, family, co-workers and people in their neighborhoods who suffer daily from addictions and should praise those overcame their problems.

"Obama's personal story is serious inspiration to all -- to have been on the brink of addiction abyss and breakdown, yet get to this point where he's a U.S. senator and running for president," Ellison said.

"So many lost brothers and sisters out there we've seen; so much talent and potential gone to waste due to substance abuse; so many lives lost. Johnson should be apologizing to more than just Obama," he added.

"I think what Johnson did was despicable," one black political strategist told BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday. "But then again, it was consistent with his narrow thought process and vision ... with BET showing videos with scantily-dressed women. This is who our black kids have looked up to."

However, Traci Blunt, a spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign, said Johnson apparently has been forgiven for his now-infamous remarks.

"Mr. Johnson is supporter of the campaign and we take him at his word," Blunt told BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday.

According to CNN, when asked Tuesday at a Las Vegas debate about Johnson's comments, Clinton distanced herself from his remarks, saying, "Well, Bob has put out a statement saying what he was trying to say and what he thought he had said. And we accept him on his word on that."

But when asked whether Johnson's comments were out of bounds, Clinton said, "Yes, they were. And he has said that."

Four days ago, Johnson also seemed to hint at Obama's acknowledged youthful drug use, an issue that led another Clinton campaign official to resign. Johnson later denied that was the case.

Johnson, the nation's first black billionaire and founder of the BET cable television network, said Obama's campaign had acted dishonestly and had distorted Clinton's remarks about Martin Luther King Jr.

Clinton was quoted just before the New Hampshire primary as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some black leaders have criticized that remark as suggesting Johnson deserved more credit than the slain civil rights leader for the passage and enactment of major civil rights legislation.

While introducing Clinton at Columbia College on last week, Johnson criticized Obama's camp which started the firestorm.

"That kind of campaign behavior would not be reasonable with me for a guy who says 'I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier,'" said Johnson, owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. He commented after Clinton said in a televised interview Sunday that she hoped the campaign would not be about race.

And Johnson added: "To me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues, when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood -- I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book -- when they have been involved," Johnson said.

Initially, the Obama campaign did not accept Johnson’s explanation.

"His tortured explanation doesn't hold up against his original statement. And it's troubling that neither the campaign nor Sen. Clinton -- who was there as the remark was made -- is willing to condemn it as they did when another prominent supporter recently said a similar thing," said Burton, the Obama spokesman, at the time.

Last month, top Clinton adviser Bill Shaheen resigned from the campaign after suggesting Democrats should be wary of nominating Obama because his past drug use could be used against him in the campaign.

Obama supporter "I.S." Leevy Johnson, a former South Carolina state legislator, said it was "offensive" that Clinton stood by during Johnson's "personal, divisive attack on Barack Obama."

"For someone who decries the politics of personal destruction, she should've immediately denounced these attacks on the spot," Johnson said in a statement issued by Obama's campaign.

Earlier Thursday, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, endorsed Obama.

"We need a president who can reintroduce America to the world and actually reintroduce America to ourselves," Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a conference call with reporters. "I believe Barack Obama is the best person to do that."

Leahy's endorsement gives Obama eight among Democratic senators, compared to 11 for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Many Democratic senators have held off on public endorsements in the presidential race, in part because there were at one time four Democratic senators and a former one in the race.

More endorsements could follow now that Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden have dropped out, though the Democratic field remains crowded with senators: Obama, Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards are still in the race.

Leahy, 67, was elected to the Senate in the post-Watergate class of 1974 and presides over the committee's hearings on nominations to the Supreme Court and the Justice Department. A former state prosecutor, he also established his panel's first subcommittee on human rights and is an avid advocate for a worldwide ban on land mines.

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Associated Press contributed to this story.