"Mistakes were made." Anyone else getting tired of hearing this phrase?

[Skidmore]

This sorry excuse is ringing hollow and has become much hackneyed. Lie your way into a war and destroy the military? Well, mistakes were made. Soldiers mistreated in health care system? Mistakes were made. Hurricaine victims left to die? Mistakes were made. FBI snoop on you illegally? Well, mistakes were made. Feel free to add the situation and supply the standardexcuese.

We need to point blank state that this excuse is not acceptable response every time it is made.

[shadowknows69]

1. Not if its followed by the phrase

"....and I intend to do the honorable thing and resign as President/Vice President/Sec. of State/etc. etc.

[KansDem]

2. Yeah, trying saying that to the IRS or a traffic cop...

See how far it gets you...

[SoCalDem]

3. "Mistakes were made" is the polite euphemism for "Shit Happens"

No republican EVER EVER says. "hey I screwed up"..."It's MY fault" (when it really IS their fault)..


Mistakes were made is always follwed by "Move forward".."Get past it".. "Look to the future"..etc.

It's THIS mentality that allows us to never really confront our demons, and errors.. That's why we keep making the same mistakes over and over..

Funny how that mantra never applies to "the little people"..

We never see this story:

Johnny Smith was arrested when police found that he was in possession of 1 oz of marijuana, and driving while intoxicated.. When questioned by the police, he said "Mistakes were made, can't we all just move forward..y'know, get past this...look to the future?"

No charges were filed, the police drove him home and apologized for making him miss curfew.

[Cameron27]

11. Mistakes were going around,

and Bush caught one...or two...or several hundred.

[emulatorloo]

4. They can't even use the active voice -- "I MADE A MISTAKE" - instead as if the Mistake abused them!

They can't even take resposiblility ever. . .that bad old mistake just sneaked up on them and happened.

Yes, this excuse is not acceptable. And yet they still say -- "Just trust us! We know better than you. . ."

[KansDem]

5. "I was a victim of graft and corruption!"

"My graft and corruption!"

[CTyankee]

12. I heard it a lot with Reagan. He was treated as being kinda out of it

so people around him just couldn't help it if mistakes were made. Well, isn't that just the old "easy button" (to steal from the Staples commercial!).

[shance]

6. Mistakes like genocide, massive theft by our "leaders", murder of innocent families and children?

You mean those kind of mistakes?

[radfringe]

7. also tired of hearing

We were Surprised

no one imagined

No one could predict

I can't/don't remember

It's the media's fault

No comment regarding an on-going investigation

[Bonhomme Richard]

8. I want to see consequences for the mistakes. n/t

[kestrel91316]

19. There ARE no consequences for the RW. They get a free pass

every time, as long as they say the Magic Words(TM):

I accept responsibility.
Mistakes were made.
I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior.

It's all the same BS.

[riverdeep]

9. Makes me long for the days of royal Japan,

when they would commit hari-kari. Now THERE'S your personal responsibility.

How much you want to bet that Scooter, for example, winds up being enriched through this (book deals, Oprah)?

[CTyankee]

13. Not to mention the payoff he has been promised for himself and

his family. That's why he took this deal: he can retire with lotsa bucks and never work again and get his pardon. No jail time and a life of ease. Cap Weinberger, anybody?

[blues90]

10. All bull and no fix

I am not only sick of the mistakes were made excuse but none of the mistakes get fixed , they however end up in the spin cycle until they shread apart into nothingness .

[Justice Is Comin]

14. And they started in the bush bedroom.

Or oil field, wherever they copulated.

[LeftishBrit]

15. It reminds me of a research study on children's language development

by Katherine Perera, I think.

The passive verb is among the last grammatical constructions to be acquired by children, and most children don't frequently use it spontaneously till the age of 7 or 8, though they understand it earlier. One of the earliest uses of the passive in this study was by a 6-year-old who said, "My sister was cut by my scissors." The researcher pointed out that he might have been particularly motivated to use the passive in this case!

Those who use "Mistakes were made" have a similar motivation!

[alfredo]

16. Bank robbery could also be explained away as a mistake.

[stnmann]

17. Mistakes should be paid for.

Very simple rule. If somebody makes a mistake that jeopardizes the life of an innocent person, his or her freedom should be taken away from them.

No doubt, if that rule is applied, most politicians would be in jail -how nice, we'd get the new blood we need.

[kestrel91316]

18. It goes right alongside the phony "I accept responsibility (now get

over it already)".

If you accept responsibility, you have to ACCEPT CONSEQUENCES, ie PUNISHMENT. But they never acknowledge that part. They just say the magic words and all is supposed to be forgiven.

[Canuckistanian]

20. "Crimes were committed" is more like it.

Another big one is "We just need to get our message out". As if the American people can't clearly see what's going on here.

Or at least 69% of the people.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Someone had a good op-ed piece on this. Notice that it's not "I made a mistake"

Mistakes were made, you know, by the nebulous "them"... (normally, if pressed, this will be narrowed down to the all-purpose "government bureaucrats")

[Tom Joad]

22. I wonder if they thought of saying that at Nuremberg?

[Cha]

23. Yeh, I think we should Expound on that..

What mistakes and how big were they? Were they made because of lies from the bushits? Have you fucking learned from them, freepers? :silly: :freak:

[Nikki Stone1]

24. Yeah, especially in the PASSIVE voice. Mistakes were made by some unknown force

maybe by space aliens or short order cooks.

[Initech]

25. I really hate that phrase. If you fucked up, admit it!

[vireo]

26. Reagan started it