According to media reports, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour defended Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's delivering a Confederate History Month proclamation with no mention of slavery.

Barbour, the Republican Governors Association chairman, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" he didn't think McDonnell made a mistake when he left slavery out of the proclamation, while McDonnell, a first-term Republican, has since apologized for his "major omission."

Speaking of the outcry since the omission, Barbour said, "To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly."

But McDonnell said, "The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed"

He called slavery "an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property ... left a stain on the soul of this state and nation" and "divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and led to the Civil War." (With Inputs from Agencies)