Print edition: 
In an impressive double dip into disparagement, Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, sent two notorious e-mails this month to Republican members.
One said, “Pray for Obama, Psalm 109:8.” That passage says, “Let his days be few and brief, and let others step forward to replace him.”
The next verse of the psalm, in which David petitions God to strike down his enemies, says, “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”
A separate e-mail forwarded by O’Neal referred to Michelle Obama as “Mrs. YoMama.”
The first e-mail said, “At last – I can honestly voice a biblical prayer for our president! Look it up – it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and sisters, can I get an ‘Amen’? Amen!!!!!!”
A spokeswoman issued a statement quoting O’Neal as saying, “To those I have offended, I am sorry.” Surely, she incomprehensibly implied, no one could think O’Neal was wishing ill for Obama.
Note the nuance in the statement: It does not offer even a mumbled “my bad” for the deed itself. He’s sorry that someone took offense, not that he sent the e-mail. If others took it badly, it must be their fault.
Unapologetic apologies and unrepentant repentance have become the norm for public figures who, while indulging their baser instincts, injure themselves on the sharp realities of the Internet age.
Famous athletes, many of whom conflate physical prowess and intelligence, tweet foolishly then have a spokesman say, “I’ve learned from this and have moved on.” But they never seem to do either.
O’Neal on Monday even managed to compound an already bad situation with this:
“…I have repeatedly apologized to the extent anyone misconstrued my intent or was otherwise offended.”
That’s what author Larry Wilmore calls the “‘Irresponsible Celebrity’ Apology.” In a brilliant 2009 satire suggesting ways a president could appear to apologize for slavery without actually doing so, he posits a president saying, “If anybody was offended or took the institution of slavery in the wrong way, the United States deeply regrets that it happened…. I can’t tell you how ashamed this government feels in regards to possibly having some citizens misinterpret or misconstrue our historical behavior, which we regret, in the wrong way.”
It’s what Richard Nixon’s Watergate cronies cynically labeled “a modified limited hangout,” a carefully crafted admission designed to ensure that even more damaging admissions remain unstated.
O’Neal, still not finished mangling propriety and sincerity this week, added with a remarkably straight face, “I respect both the president and his office.”
Did that include “Mrs. YoMama”?
When will public people learn that the Internet is not a private space where they can exercise their more juvenile instincts without inflicting double damage: to themselves and to the people who learn that they are being disparaged?
How many CEOs, members of Congress and other celebrities have to be brought down by putting their physiques and psyches on the Web’s indelible record?
How many middle-level employees have to be snared expressing their disdain for bosses or customers?
How many people must go off to jail in handcuffs constructed of their e-mails?
But on second thought, perhaps we should forget those questions. Maybe we’re all better informed about their true nature and feelings because they don’t catch on.
