October 3, 2003

Welcome to the ranks of the public apologizers

By SCOTT STEEPLETON
NEWS-PRESS ASSISTANT METRO EDITOR

Richard Nixon did it with his dog by his side. County Administrator Mike Brown attended a Muslim prayer service. Arnold Schwarzenegger leaned on fans at a Thursday morning campaign stop.

Facing criticism for doing something stupid, outrageous or, in Mr. Nixon's case, perhaps illegal, each man took a different tack to publicly confront missteps. The public not only forgot the alleged transgressions committed by two of them -- after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Brown questioned the idea that Islam is a peace-loving religion, while early in his political career Mr. Nixon put campaign contributions to personal use -- it also forgave them.

Whether history will be as kind to Mr. Schwarzenegger, who following a blistering Los Angeles Times report admitted to having "behaved badly" toward women in the past, won't be known until Tuesday, when voters decide if he should replace Gov. Gray Davis in the recall election.

But observers outside the recall say that by coming clean on the morning of the Times story, Mr. Schwarzenegger may have saved his political skin.

"While it will not completely silence his critics, his public apology immediately defuses the potential for a major negative issue, shows he is only human and permits him to continue concentrating on the topics and issues he wants to emphasize in the remaining days of the campaign," said Donn Pearlman, president of the Illinois firm Minkus & Pearlman Public Relations.

Gregory Payne, professor and director of the Emerson College Center for Ethics in Political Communications in Boston, said apologizing was the movie star-turned-candidate's best strategy. "He didn't deny it, he didn't ignore it. He addressed it and continued on with business as usual."

If there's one masterfully spun mea culpa in the history of American politics, it is the 1952 "Checkers Speech" by Mr. Nixon, who was facing a financial scandal that threatened to wipe his name from the Eisenhower ticket.

It was named after his dog, and Mr. Nixon used political jujitsu to turn the allegations back on his accusers.

"In that speech, Nixon not only defended his use of the campaign money, saying it wasn't illegal, but he said everything they were saying about him was really applied to them," Mr. Payne said.

As part of the speech, the man who ultimately became the 37th president also invoked his wife's name -- a move that's been copied many times since.

"What's interesting about all these public apologia is they always feature the wife close by and very supportive," said Mr. Payne. "The one that didn't play well was (former Sen.) Gary Hart. Where was (his wife) Lee Hart when he went before the public? She apparently had a sore throat."

With the final weekend of the campaign here, culminating coincidentally with Yom Kippur, which to those of the Jewish faith means Day of Atonement, it will be interesting to see what role Mr. Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver, plays in the candidate's own atonement.

"We need to see Maria, in the best Tammy Wynette fashion, standing by her man," Mr. Payne said.

She did just that late in the day after her husband was hit with another allegation: that he once referred to Adolf Hitler as a hero. For the second time in a day, Mr. Schwarzenegger was forced to address a potentially damaging claim; this time his wife was by his side, praising his courage for facing down detractors.

Mr. Payne cautioned voters to weigh the claims in the newspaper story against their 11th-hour release. "I think (it) is somewhat suspect this late in the game," he said. "Most of the voting public is aware that these things don't just surface."

Officeholders -- and candidates -- at the state and national levels are not the only ones who can find themselves seeking public redemption.

Santa Barbara County's top administrator, Mike Brown, found himself in that position in the wake of Sept. 11 when, during a State of the County address, he stood before an image of the burning World Trade Center towers and asserted that Western civilization was under attack and that any characterization of Islam as a peace-loving religion was "bunk."

Within a week, he apologized to his bosses, the Board of Supervisors, and to Muslims during a prayer service at Goleta Valley Community Center.

"I learned that it's part of being in the public eye that you can say something and someone can interpret it as hurtful or harmful," Mr. Brown said Thursday. "But as I said at that time, the actual remark was not intended the way it might have been perceived. What I was talking about was nation-states that harbored or helped terrorists."

Reflecting on his apology before the people, Mr. Brown said, "I think that people have to do it all the time if you're going to be in public life."

As he did then, the president of the Islamic Society, Mukhtar Khan, on Thursday said that Mr. Brown showed courage by coming before the people he offended and apologizing.

"That was a hard time for the nation. Mr. Brown was feeling the remorse and the shock of what happened on Sept. 11, and we understand that people were angry and upset and trying to find anyone to blame for that situation," he said. "We understand his frustration, and when you're upset, you say things you don't really mean."

Mr. Khan added that Muslims, like other people of faith, believe people can change.

"If Arnold Schwarzenegger has acted in bad ways, well, most people do at one time in their lives and they can later change," he said. "The record is what should show. People should look at the recent record to see if he has reformed."

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