Here’s how the brutish Congressman apologized.

“The truth is I had a long day,” he said. “I’ve had bad days many times. It’s not a good crutch to lean on and I won’t use that.”

–Rep. Bob Etheridge

Neat how that works, no?

He says he won’t use a crutch while doing exactly that.

There’s a name for this type of BS.

Paralipsis (παράλειψις) also spelled paraleipsis, or paralepsis and known also as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis, antiphrasis, or parasiopesis, is a rhetorical figure of speech wherein the speaker or writer invokes a subject by denying that it should be invoked. As such, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony. Paralipsis is usually employed to make a subversive ad hominem attack.

The device is typically used to distance the speaker from unfair claims, while still bringing them up. For instance, a politician might say, “I don’t even want to talk about the allegations that my opponent is a drunk.”