PG isn't a worm. He's done good things, not bad things, and he knows it and won't say otherwise. He tries to clarify (implying his accusers are mistaken), rather than apologize. Some people don't like anything great; they weren't tearing him down due to misunderstanding but malice. They don't like his attitude and accomplishments, and clarifying that his views are reasonable won't satisfy them. This is an explanatory passage from Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand:

"My sister. My dear sister. Oh, she'll think she's great, won't she?"

"You dislike your sister, Mr. Taggart?" He made the same sound; its meaning was so eloquent that she needed no other answer. "Why?" she asked.

"Because she thinks she's so good. What right has she to think it? What right has anybody to think he's good? Nobody's any good."

"You don't mean it, Mr. Taggart."

"I mean, we're only human beings—and what's a human being? A weak, ugly, sinful creature, born that way, rotten in his bones—so humility is the one virtue he ought to practice. He ought to spend his life on his knees, begging to be forgiven for his dirty existence. When a man thinks he's good—that's when he's rotten. Pride is the worst of all sins, no matter what he's done."

"But if a man knows that what he's done is good?"

"Then he ought to apologize for it."

"To whom?"

"To those who haven't done it."