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Congressman Mahoney’s apology falls flat
By Lauren | October 15, 2008
Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney is not having a good day. AOL News reports that the married Congressman was called to address claims that he’d had an affair with a former aide. Mahoney issued a public statement “taking full responsibility” for the embarrassment and heartache he had caused his wife and daughter. Not bad … until a few hours later, when word leaked out that Mahoney allegedly had a second affair with another woman at about the same time.
Ouch.
It doesn’t help that Mahoney occupies the Congressional seat that was vacated by Mark Foley after word got out that Foley had been sending salacious messages to male Congressional pages. In his victory speech, Mahoney promised to restore morality and family values to Washington in the wake of the Foley scandal. Now, Mahoney looks like a hypocrite as well as a liar, which is not a good thing for a politician who’s seeking re-election in less than a month.
Mahoney’s mistake is one that many people make when they apologize. He tried to hold back information that was directly relevant to the original offense – in other words, he lied by omission. Once word got out (and somehow, it almost always does) it became obvious that Mahoney had not, in fact, taken full responsibility for his actions, which is an essential element of any effective apology. If he’d told the whole truth, his apology might have seemed sincere. But at this point, it looks like just another politician’s cynical attempt to spin public opinion before Election Day.
Take a tip from Mahoney’s example. If you have to admit that you’ve done something wrong, ‘fess up to it all at once. The more openly you acknowledge and take responsibility for your mistakes, the more likely it is that your apology will succeed.
Topics: Apologies, Personal Ethics, ethics |
October 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
[...] presents Congressman Mahoney’s apology falls flat posted at The Business Ethics Blog. Saying - …after failing to mention that he had a second [...]