WHEN AN APOLOGY IS NOT AN APOLOGY

Today I watched "ABC News: This Week with George Stephanopoulos" as I usually do on Sunday mornings. The show always has a panel discussion during the latter half of the program, with George Will as a regualar panelist. When the panel covered Hillary Clinton's gaffe about Robert F. Kennedy, E. J. Dionne, a guest panelist, made a remarkable comment that is well worth repeating.

Clinton, who had been under increasing pressure to drop out of the Democratic presidential nomination campaign, cited the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as a reason to keep on campaigning. Some of Obama's supporters took her remarks to mean it was possible that Obama might get killed before the end of the campaign. That is not what she meant.

Clinton quickly issued this apology: "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever." Apparently, Clinton merely meant to point out that the campaigns of RFK and her husband's in 1992 were still in full swing during the month of June.

During the panel's discussion of Hillary's apology, Dionne, a long-time op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, piped in with the following statement: "My wife tells me that when an apology contains an 'if' it's not really an apology." Great statement! Dionne's wife is obviously a very sharp lady.

Just think about it. How many times have you heard a politician or other public figure issue an apology which said, "I'm sorry IF I have offneded anyone" or, "I apologize IF my words offended anyone."? Countless of times no doubt! Mrs. Dionne is exactly right - they are not really apologizing for what they said. They are only expressing regret over having offended somebody.

An honest apology would not contain any "ifs, ands or buts." If a politician or other public figure were to be sincere, they would apologize by saying, "I'm sorry" for what they said or did and leave it at that. No matter how aggrieveous the statement or behavior may have been, when they inject an "if" into their apology, they are saying to those who were not offended that no apology is called for.