Is the new mea culpa strategy working for the Republicans?

Every time you turn on the tube these days you see someone caught doing something illegal or amoral admitting they have done wrong---then they promise to do better. After Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security did it. Last week, the Veteran’s Administration went before a congressional hearing and tried it. Yesterday, the FBI confessed their wiretapping abuses. Now, even George W. Bush, the original Mr. Never-Admit-Anything, has jumped on the bandwagon. The formula goes something like this: cop a plea, say seven hail Mary’s and admit you sinned. Then, once you have been absolved, make a statement saying the situation has been examined and that changes are being made. Once you have done all that, everyone is supposed to admire you and forgive your sins.

The right-wing Christian coalition, a group that sometimes has trouble thinking for itself, is being told it is noble to confess, that Jesus forgives all sinners, and that once you have done this, you’re absolved of all responsibility. Fox News commentators also push this belief. “Well,” they say, “Bush has admitted he made some mistakes. But, he acted on bad intelligence. He said the situation in Iraq is intolerable, and he’s doing everything he can to make sure things will be better now.”

Oh, yeah! Great! Amen! But with more than 3,000 soldiers already dead, Bin laden chuckling somewhere in a cave, and Afghanistan beginning to boil over again, is just saying “I’m sorry” enough?

There’s an old saying: Sorry in one and spit in the other. Historically, the word sorry hasn’t carried much weight, but lately strategists in Washington have raised its status to one of biblical importance.

Next time you listen to the news, just count and be dazzled. Every day some new illegal or immoral act is being discovered. These incidents are rising faster than bones in a Louisiana graveyard. And, the first word you will hear out of the mouth of the guilty will be mea culpa, mea culpa—I’m sorry.

There is something noble about confession. Assuming responsibility for your actions has always proven better than hiding them, but if the list of things you have done is long and continues to grow after you’ve knelt in the corner to delivery your obligatory Hail Marys, even God might grow weary of listening to your hollow words.

The fact that the Bush administration has discovered a new strategy to avoid being held accountable for their many sins won’t save them in the end. Like all their other calculated but stupid moves, this one will soon be seen for what it is—just another clever attempt to bamboozle their constituents into thinking they are honorable men.

Lying, corruption, war, secret prisons, the Katrina disaster, Abu Grad, billions of dollars worth of contracts in Iraq not cancelled when the work wasn’t done, the FEMA trailers still sitting empty in a field of mud, veteran abuse—just how much forgiveness can these guys expect?

Sorry in one had and spit in the other--someone ought to say that to the next government official who tries to wiggle out of responsibility. Does anyone really give a darn if everyone connected to Bush is suddenly sorry? If those known liars assure us they are being truthful now? I don’t think so.