Apologize, Deny or Can’t Recall – Politician's Options in a New Fractious World

Everyday headlines blare of misconduct run amok from Tallahassee to D.C. – ethics, sentencing and intelligence hearings dot the headlines.  One common theme that ties all of these investigations together is the common, rote refrains we hear as explanations.  Outright denials to contrived mea culpas to convenient lapses in memories seem to be the only responses we get from politicians or public figure caught in the cross hairs of controversy.  It would be refreshing if at least one new mantra for bad behavior entered the lexicon of crisis.

This week we saw all three play out in top stories; Al Franken’s two part apology for playing grab-ass on a plane was the most refreshing – "yes I did and by god I’m sorry, please investigate me".  Although not hugely popular, Al’s response seemed the most genuine.  We also saw a similar, yet less full throated, apology from prison-bound Corrine Brown – but the motives there were clear, "spare me a life in the clink".   As apologies go these two are tops for this week’s news roundup.

On the other hand, the denials of Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner that they didn’t play grab-ass with the Russians will still probably end up in indictments and a cell next to Corrine Brown someday down the road.  Of course when their denials were proven false, they resorted to the third classic crisis defense “I can’t remember”.   So within a period of one week Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions proved that not only are they liars, but they are uncreative urchins of public crisis who would sacrifice their mental capacity to cover the conniving tracks.