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Notes -
A sitting senator falsely accusing someone may be a bigger deal, but so is a sitting senator publicly admitting wrongdoing and apologising. Either way, the bottom line is that no amount of sophistry can really wash away the bad look of making ethical demands of someone else but showing no desire to be bound by them yourself at whatever smaller scale is applicable to you.
(On the meta level, a teaching moment. Even after conceding that you made a mistake, and even after this callout, you clearly are deeply averse to just saying sorry, even though it would resolve this altercation and improve your reputation considerably. Apologising to adversaries who you disdain and believe have wronged you in countless ways before is psychologically hard.)
Well such apologies improve one's reputation in some circles but not necessarily in others. I would guess that among ultra partisan progressive types, it would diminish one's standing to publicly make that kind of concession to the out-group. Probably few, if any, ultra partisan progressive types read this message board but all of our minds are haunted by the ghosts of tribesmen from the ancestral environment.
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