I'm Sorry, I Misspoke

We all mis-speak at times, stumble over our tongues or have a short circuit between the earphones.

When a politician says something outrageous and then claims "I mis-spoke," shouldn't reporters ask "Well then, what did you mean to say?"

Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern (R), said this week that:

"We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that's tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don't want to study as hard in school?" she asked. "I've taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

"Kern also said women earn less than men because 'they tend to spend more time at home with their families.'"

Again, everyone misspeaks at times, everyone makes mistakes.

"When I said "all philosophy is a footnote on Plato, I really meant to say 'Socrates.' I'm sorry; I mis-spoke."

So what did Rep. Kern mean to say when she "misspoke?" What reasonable observation could she have intended to say that somehow "mistakenly" came out as that brazenly racist and misogynistic pronouncement?

And is she sorry she said it? Or that people heard her say it?

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BTW: My experience is that there are crazies of all political stripes - we can't condemn any party because it includes some of them.

OTOH, I believe we can and should criticize a party when it refuses to reprimand the crazies in its leadership:

GOP House Speaker Kris Steele said Kern "will not be admonished by the Oklahoma House’s GOP leadership."

Maybe Mr Steele can tell us what reasonable statement could have ended up "mis-spoken" like that.