Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York just proved again that if a politician doesn’t do an apology right even after two tries, then he isn’t really sorry. Alas, American public life seems to have lost whatever vestiges remained of the art and grace of sincere repentance.

Schumer has been justifiably under fire from across the political spectrum for appearing to threaten Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday. He made matters not better but worse when he subsequently issued a statement (through a spokesman) refusing to acknowledge he had erred, instead both claiming he had said something entirely different and attacking Chief Justice John Roberts and “the right wing” for supposedly “deliberate misinterpretation” of Schumer’s remarks.