It has always existed, but in the last ten years or so its become ubiquitous, an art form, a strategy, a gameplan.

What exotic practice is it that I speak of?

I call it the "whowhame" You know, when you get doing something or saying something you shouldn't be doing or saying and you make the - Who? What? Me? face and then make a bold denial of ever having done or said what you were caught doing.

Everyone does it these days. Politicians, athletes, businesspeople.

Why there are some great examples to be culled from today's news alone.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Justin Timberlake backtracked from criticism of "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks after telling Fashion Rocks magazine the 29-year-old soul singer "can't carry a tune in a bucket."

"The guy who won -- people think he looks so normal, and he's so sweet, and he's so earnest, but he can't carry a tune in a bucket. Do you realize how much pressure it is to put on somebody all of a sudden?"

"If he has any skeletons whatsoever; if, God forbid, he's gay, and all these people in Mississippi who voted for him are like, 'Oh, my God, I voted for a queer!' It's just too much pressure."

Ken Sunshine, Timberlake's representative, said the 25-year-old singer's comments "were taken completely out of context."

"He has tremendous affection for Taylor Hicks' success," Sunshine told The Associated Press on Thursday. "He would never say anything that personal about somebody he's never met. He only wishes him the best."

Ken Sunsine, putting a golden light on everything, this after Johnny Saviour at the "I can't Get Laid Charm School. I should change my name, perhaps to Mikey Karma.

NOW - There is more than just the usual "taken out of context" bit, which is a reprehensible excuse given the clarity of what Mr. Timberlake said and feels, but look even further at the corruption and misuse of language to obfuscate the truth.

The spokesman says "he has tremendous affection for Taylor Hick's success." WHAT? Can you have affection for a non tangible thing like someone else's success? And "he would never say anything that personal about someone he has never met." really? He's human - and like 99.9 percent of us humans WE SAY THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE WE HAVE NEVER MET.

HITLER WAS A MONSTER, so I say, even though I never met him.

A classic whowhame

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FROM THE HOW NOT TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE FILE

Wal-Mart Image-Builder Resigns

By MICHAEL BARBARO and STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: August 18, 2006

The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had ripped off urban communities for years, selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.

In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart should displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

You see those are the people who have been overcharging us, he said of the owners of the small stores, and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think theyve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now its Arabs.

Mr. Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former United States representative to the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview last night. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.

"Its against everything I ever thought in my life," Mr. Young said. "It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles."

His remarks drew forceful condemnation from Arab, Jewish and Asian leaders.

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, called the comments "very hurtful."

Of course, accepting a large amount of cash to go into communities trying to destroy the local shops, mostly owned by minorities, was a part of "everything I ever thought in my life" as a "CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER." Scumbag.

OH GREAT, HE RETRACTED IT - AND SAID IT'S AGAINST EVERYTHING HE EVER FELT

Okay Mel Gibson jr. I see you are employing your own version of the whowhame principal.

Spare us.