When public people screw up and they go into damage-control mode, they tend to utter words like these:

• "I made a mistake."
• "My words were taken out of context."
• "This was blown out of proportion."

Bill Clinton's escapade with Monica was a "mistake." Other "mistakes" were made by Senator Craig, Paris, Lindsey, and Michael Vick, to name but a few. Politicians never do anything wrong or sinful; it's always a matter of "mistakes." Hey, we all make mistakes, right?

Bill O'Reilly expressed surprise that blacks could run a restaurant as well as whites. But he claims his words were taken out of context. The context is that he apparently has an inherently racist worldview.

Politicians continually state that their words were taken out of context. We'll hear that a lot between now and Election Day 2008. I'm sure Hitler, if alive today, would claim that anti-Jewich statements from his speeches were taken out of context. And once taken out of context, things are invariably "blown out of proportion."

People of character simply admit that what they said or did was wrong, and take responsibility. Mel Gibson did that. Don Imus did. Jimmy Swaggart famously cried, "I have sinned." I'm no Swaggart fan, but hey, good for him. There are plenty of other examples of non-excuse-makers.

I listened to ESPN radio while returning from the table tennis club last night. They were talking about Michael Vick. One commentator said, "Michael Vick didn't make a mistake. He made a choice." Amen.