Michigan Representative Cindy Gamrat apologized today before a House legislative committee for her role in a scandal involving fellow legislator Todd Courser.

The West Michigan legislator apologized “for the failures I’ve committed, which do not reflect the heart of who I am, the values I believe in, nor the people I serve. I humbly ask the forgiveness of God and my family and my colleagues for the hurt and difficulties my failures have brought.”

She accepted the summary findings of a House Business Office investigation, which determined that she and Mr. Courser misused taxpayer resources to hide their affair and inappropriately mixed official and political business. She acknowledged for the first time that she had a role in the May email designed to discredit allegations of their affair.

I would never want to be in Ms. Gamrat’s shoes, but we all can improve on the quality of our apologies, so studying public apologies can be instructive.

This apology is not bad. Measured against Peacemaker Ministries’ “Seven A’s of Confession,” it meets most of the criteria. She may not have “Admitted specifically” everything she did wrong, but the fact that she accepted the findings of the House report, including owning up to involvement in the email, which she had previously denied, is good.

One of the 7 A’s is, “Accept the consequences.” The House is considering a recommendation that she be censured, not expelled, and she asked for censure today. She said she did not want to resign. A sign of genuine remorse is a willingness to accept whatever consequences may result from the offense. This apology would have been more powerful had she yielded herself to whatever consequences her colleagues and her constituents deem appropriate.

The timing is also problematic, in terms of the sincerity of her apology. She lied to the House committee that was investigating the matter last month, perhaps hoping that her role in the infamous email wouldn’t come to light. Now that the committee is considering censure, she admits to wrongdoing. It looks self-serving rather than totally sincere. This apology would have been more meaningful had it come when the affair was publicly revealed August 7.

Ms. Gamrat is meeting tonight with constituents in Fennville. They get to decide whether her apology was sincere, and whether to forgive her.