In journalism, the basic principle is "don't bury the lead." The same can be said of apology. If you're going to apologize, get to it right away.
A NJ politician will regret violating this principle. 
Christopher J. Christie, a former prosecutor running for governor of NJ on a platform of ethical reform, apologized August 19 for failing to report a $46,000 loan to a top aide. But he buried the actual apology and should have apologized for something else, as well. The effort shows the difficulty of trying to combine an explanation with an apology.
In a campaign appearance in Cherry Hill ,Christie made a long statement about what he conceded was a mistake: failing to report a personal loan he made to the IRS and required campaign . The statement does a good job at accepting responsibility for a failure of disclosure. He should have apologized for the very questionable judgment he showed in loaning a significant sum of money to a subordinate. It's never ideal for a supervisor in a public agency such as the prosecutor's office to loan money to someone he supervised and then promoted. It creates conflicts with other employees and undermines public confidence in the orderly management of the office. I'm not surprised that Christie failed to report the matter (even though he did record the mortgage).
It's also impossible to combine an apology with an attempt to rationalize one's behavior. You can do either one or the other, but not both. Apology, in the end, is giving up one's struggle with rationalization. Here is Christie's statement:
I make mistakes, I am human. And I made a mistake by not putting on my disclosure form the loan that Mary Pat and I made to Michele Brown and her husband Mike about 2 years ago. I will just tell you that for me and Mary Part, we made a decision to help some friends who were in a tough financial straight because Mike had lost his job. And I never thought of that as an asset that was giving me income, so when I was putting together my disclosure forms I did not think of it in that way. And that is why it is not there.
So today, I have already signed and filed an amended form for the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Laying out the specifics that we need to lay out for the loan. By email this afternoon, after I leave here, I will send amendments to my 2007 and 2008 federal disclosure form which I was informed this morning by the Department of Justice is permitted for me to do. And I will send that by email today, once again detailing as the federal form requires. The loan range and the range of interest that was collected. On the way down I spoke to my accountant who is going to prepare an amended tax return for 2007 for 420 dollars in interest collected in 2007 from the loan and will file that by the end of week. My 2008 tax returns have not been filed yet because we are still awaiting more information from some of our investments so we will put the amount of interest that was earned which is approximately 2400 dollars on that tax return and pay the appropriate taxes when we file our returns probably close to October when we get all of our information.
This was something where we were trying to help some friends, we did help some friends through a difficult time but I made a mistake by not putting it on the form. It was certainty nothing that I was trying to conceal or hide because obviously we did everything the way you are supposed to do this. We did a mortgage, we recorded the mortgage through the county court house where the property was located. Michele and Mike have been paying their monthly payments every month since that time. I never conceived it as income, interest income, just never struck me that way, I thought I was getting a loan paid back to me and that's why we didn't put it on the forms. It was pure oversight on my part and my fault, my mistake and I apologize for that. Certainly nothing that I was attempting to keep from anybody. So I am glad that we could get it cleared up today.
When I make a mistake, when I misspeak, when I do something wrong I am going to admit it to you and to the people of the state. I'm not perfect, and I'm not going to be. I'm going to make mistakes and when I make mistakes I'm going to own up to them. This was a mistake and an oversight on my part.
Christie's defense of a substantial loan to a subordinate whom he later promoted is troubling to many people and seems to reflect badly on his judgment, despite his obvious belief that he was acting out of pure impulses. An apology acknowledging that it's questionable judgment for a supervisor to be lending money to a subordinate is what Christine requires to make this issue go away. Until he does, his political enemies will have an easy time criticizing him and Christie will always be playing defense. That's what makes effective apology so powerful: it eliminates the conflict that feeds political criticism.
I'm not heartless. I appreciate that what we have here is a supervisor genuinely interested in helping an employee in financial distress. There are lots of ways for friends to help friends. Lending money directly is rarely the best way. There are lots of ways for bosses to help subordinates. Lending money directly is never the best way.
Evaluation
Recognition: C
Responsibility: A
Remorse: B
Restitution: C
Repetition: F
Overall Score: C
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