Forgiveness
Forgiveness Several years ago, a close friend informed me in the bluntest possible terms that I'd been treating him shabbily. He had a list of specific offenses: I'd been patronizing, puffed up,...
...They forgave him...
...Starr quickly realized he'd made an enormous mistake in cutting out before the Whitewater case was completed...
...Why are they so reluctant...
...They should check out Proverbs 28:13: "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy...
...Seeking forgiveness works, both in repairing relationships and as an effective political tool...
...Now, Clinton has refused to ask for forgiveness for any presidential wrongdoing...
...All he had to do was admit, sincerely, that he'd erred, and was sorry...
...Media criticism stopped, and Starr's relationship with friends and co-workers was restored...
...Instantly, Gingrich was back in hot water again, his bid for forgiveness exposed as fraudulent...
...He suggested his lawyer should apologize for making a mistake...
...The freshest example is Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel...
...One more thing: Insincere attempts at forgiveness rarely work...
...Are you basically then admitting that you made a mistake or made mistakes...
...Normally I wouldn't burden anyone with a personal confession...
...Starr said he'd made "an unwise judgment" and "consulted inadequately with my colleagues...
...He announced in February he was stepping down to become law school dean at Pepperdine University in California...
...The president knew he'd made mistakes...
...In my case, when I asked to be forgiven, mercy is exactly what I found...
...For reporters, it kept the story alive, and Gore has continued to be pounded by the press...
...And normally I wouldn't try to draw lessons for the nation's political leaders from my own experience...
...The scandal wouldn't have died down entirely, but Clinton might have become less ripe a target of reporters and the public...
...Had he admitted his mistake and apologized, it might not have ended the controversy but it would have defused things a bit...
...Still, I give Gingrich credit for making a stab at forgiveness anyway...
...While Starr didn't explicitly ask the public to forgive him, that was the effect of his mea culpa...
...I sought out my friend and asked for forgiveness...
...This was the wrong answer...
...Now compare the Starr episode with Vice President Al Gore's painfully unsuccessful effort to extinguish the flap over his role in the Democratic fund-raising scandal...
...They're so self-obsessed and pampered they just can't imagine they've done anything wrong, ever...
...Certainly the explanation that "mistakes were made" in campaign fund-raising at the White House didn't help...
...That's one more stab than most politicians are willing to make...
...But forgiveness is different...
...My guess is the press would have begun moving on to the next story...
...Back in January, Speaker Newt Gingrich said he'd been "too brash, too self-confident, or too pushy," and he asked to be forgiven...
...a reporter asked...
...The point was if Hillary had forgiven him, voters should too...
...My first reaction was to feel wrongly accused...
...He said he'd Casual blundered: "As Fiorello La Guardia would say, when I make a mistake, it's a beaut...
...It worked...
...And at least from appearances, he looked like a man whose soul had been restored as well...
...In the end, I concluded my friend was mostly right...
...So what did I need to do about it...
...Rather than gaining forgiveness, Clinton made matters worse...
...But it should have...
...Even so, his inclination was to announce simply that he'd reconsidered and would stay on—no more...
...Of all pols, President Clinton ought to understand the political value of forgiveness...
...A decade later, he appeared with Hillary after Gennifer Flowers declared she had had a long-term affair with him...
...Fred Barnes...
...It worked for a while...
...He said his decision to leave was one "I deeply regret...
...Most of my rules for living are pretty humdrum (Rule 1: Always ask for extra napkins at a fast-food restaurant) and don't have any relevance to national affairs...
...No," Gore said, and elaborated on his legalistic alibi...
...At his "no controlling legal authority" press conference, Gore said he'd never make fund-raising calls from the White House again...
...Maybe he subscribes to the dictum of James Baker, Ronald Reagan's White House chief of staff, that a president should never admit error because it would erode his authority...
...His aides knew it...
...His friends, allies, law partners, and Whitewater prosecution colleagues were aghast, and the media assault was brutal...
...In Clinton's case, a plea for forgiveness might enhance his authority...
...Many did...
...But after thinking about what he'd said for a day or two, consulting another friend, and praying, I wasn't so sure...
...He had a list of specific offenses: I'd been patronizing, puffed up, etc...
...As far as I know, it didn't come up at the recent civility summit held by House Republicans and Democrats in Hershey, Pa...
...Fortunately, his advisers cajoled him into going further...
...A few weeks later, though, Gingrich blamed others for his ethics troubles...
...This was unnecessary...
...He's exploited the idea before, apologizing directly to voters in Arkansas when he sought reelection in 1982...
...I suppose it's for the same reason so few indulge in self-deprecatory humor...
Vol. 2 • April 1997 • No. 30
