Sorting between 'sorry,' 'moving on'

Is this the summer of the apology?

Michael Vick is sorry he exploited and harmed dogs.

Patrick Kane is sorry he put himself in a position to be embarrassed by a spat with a cab drier.

John Edwards is sorry for a romantic affair with a campaign aide who bore a child.

Rick Pitino is sorry for his romantic affair that apparently led to an abortion after he paid the woman $3,000.

Chris Brown is sorry he beat up Rihanna.

David Letterman is sorry he made crude statements about the wrong daughter of Sarah Palin.

Derrick Rose is sorry he had his picture taken while making gang signs.

The Obama White House is sorry its e-mails on health care went to people who didn't want them.

Someone is sorry, though exactly who is hard to tell, for the racial uproar over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

John McCain is sorry he used a Jackson Browne song in his presidential campaign without permission.

Sarah Palin, by the way, is not sorry about misrepresenting the Obama health care plan, nor, apparently are either former Chicago Bear/Slaughter coach Steve McMichael or South Elgin village Trustee Bill DiFulvio about their public outburst at South Elgin's Riverfest.

Clearly, we've come a long way from the definitive 1970s declaration in "Love Story" that "love means never having to say you're sorry." But you'll pardon us if we're beginning to wonder what "sorry" means.

Don't get us wrong. We're glad to see famous people willing to step up to the microphone and admit their human frailties. It's just that it's getting difficult to distinguish regret from remorse.

However sincere all these mea culpas may sound, one has a sense that they are but an uncomfortable inconvenience, a necessary step to mark off on the checklist to public rehabilitation and a fat new paycheck.

The grandfather of all public apologies, of course, is former President Bill Clinton's acknowledgment of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky in 1998, coincidentally 11 years ago this week. One might think it next to impossible to rehabilitate oneself from so many wrongs - taking advantage of a young intern, marital infidelity, lying to one's spouse, lying to the public, virtually lying to a grand jury - yet Clinton, who earlier this month was hailed for his mission to free two journalists from North Korea, clearly has shown how a public figure can emerge from even the harshest public embarrassments.

In the end, to be sure, we all have to move on from our mistakes, and it's important to acknowledge that public figures are no less inclined toward the basest of mistakes than the rest of us. The lingering question is, which was more important, the acknowledgment of wrongdoing or the moving on? We just hope that, after the apology, the various miscreants endure at least a few nights of difficult sleep that have nothing to do with their public image.