"I'm sorry, so sorry
That I was such a fool
I didn't know
Love could be so cruel
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Uh, oh
Oh, yes."
"I'm Sorry." Brenda Lee's breakout hit, age 15, 1960
An expert on apologies tells Hunter Biden the next steps for getting on with his life: Do the "full-Swaggart."
Ashland, Oregon resident Edwin Battistella wrote the book on apologies. In Thursday's post I had urged Hunter Biden to apologize, to go to prison, and to become a reformer condemning nepotism and influence-peddling in public life. Become known for having changed, not for being a privileged person getting away with bad behavior. Do it for your father, do it for the country, do it for yourself, I urged.
Battistella suggests how to do the apology part of all that. He is the expert.
Battistella is a Professor Emeritus in Linguistics at Southern Oregon University. Edwin Battistella is the author of Sorry about that: the Language of Public Apology and Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President, from Washington to Trump. He is the go-to authority when the national news media needs someone to comment on an error or humiliation requiring a public apology.
Guest Post by Edwin Battistella
Like Peter, I am so very tired of Hunter Biden. He’s the gift that keep on giving to the far-right. As Frank Bruni put it in the New York Times “The intensity of many House Republicans’ fixation on Hunter Biden is deranged and journalists would be wrong to chronicle every breathless inch of their descent down that rabbit hole.”
He’s a sideshow, but one that allows criticism of Trump – and his family – to be answered with “But what about Hunter.” (see, Clinton, Hilary, “But her emails”).
And Hunter makes a bad image, kind of like Kevin Nealon playing a mid-level Mafioso in a dark suit and hang-dog expression. If there was a Biden crime family (there’s not), Hunter would be in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.
And Peter is right. Hunter should do some jail time and he should apologize. His lawyers probably won’t let him do either thing. But if he does apologize he should do it right: he should do the "full-Swaggart."
That term the refers to old-time televangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s apology when he was photographed with a prostitute at a New Orleans motel. From his pulpit Swaggart asked forgiveness from his wife, from his family, from his church and congregation, from his fellow evangelists and his audience, and from God too.
Hunter doesn’t have a TV pulpit, but after he takes his punishment he should spell out all the people that his actions have harmed. He should do it in writing, as an open letter perhaps, giving specifics about the harm his actions and his weaknesses have done. He should apologize to his family, including his barely acknowledged daughter Navy, for his personal behavior, to his father for being a liability through his personal choices and business decisions, and to the government and the American people for allowing himself to become a distraction from the business of the administration. And he should talk about his choices for the future, making a commitment to be a better person.
He should put the whole thing in writing and then he should shut up and serve some time. With luck he’ll come out a better and more sympathetic person. And perhaps he can serve as a role model for some others who may be facing charges.
I'm around a lot of Democrats as a member of the Josephine County Democratic Party and I don't know any who stick up for Hunter Biden. We believe if he's done something unlawful or even awful he should be held accountable, just like any of our kids would be in the same situation. We realize parents have little control over their adult offspring and the Bidens, behind closed doors, probably talk about how Hunter drives them nuts but love him anyway and try to support him as he attempts to recover from his abominable past. As a wise old hairdresser out in Surprise Valley once said, "all families seem normal till you get to know them." Who among us doesn't know families dealing with at least one adult child, sibling, cousin, who has gone off the rails? The stories are endless and I'm sure most Republicans experience this as well. However, since right-wing media couldn't exist without a scapegoat Hunter is the new Hillary.
It wouldn't hurt...