I think part of owning a mistake it to stop making it. Ortiz is in a rare position to do something about all of this. Own the mistake, admit to it, and do something about it. Bring Congress the real facts on the ground. Tell them why it is the way it is and produce a meaningful plan to change it. Go stand next to Larry Lessig and ask them to fix the laws. Eat as much crow as you have to in order to do the right thing, and then eat a little more.
Heck, she's a prosecutor, why doesn't she prosecute some of the jackholes who actually deserve it? Who made the system work this way? Go take on the prison industrial complex. Catch prison companies breaking election laws in order to push bills for the express purpose of increasing the prison population and put that on the front page. Work with whatever the federal equivalent of internal affairs is and investigate the propriety of her own Department of Justice being stacked with former RIAA attorneys[1] and prosecute anyone involved who she can prove committed misconduct. Wage a campaign against policy laundering as a mechanism to over-criminalize nonviolent actions and prosecute some international corporations for bribery or treason or whatever you can get to stick to them. Then even if they fired her it would be as the hero instead of the villain, and she can go to work filing civil suits of the sort that criminal justice reform advocates are always wanting to, but with a head full of insider information.
That is how you redeem yourself after you make a mistake, not by denying everything and going back to business as usual.
Heck, she's a prosecutor, why doesn't she prosecute some of the jackholes who actually deserve it? Who made the system work this way? Go take on the prison industrial complex. Catch prison companies breaking election laws in order to push bills for the express purpose of increasing the prison population and put that on the front page. Work with whatever the federal equivalent of internal affairs is and investigate the propriety of her own Department of Justice being stacked with former RIAA attorneys[1] and prosecute anyone involved who she can prove committed misconduct. Wage a campaign against policy laundering as a mechanism to over-criminalize nonviolent actions and prosecute some international corporations for bribery or treason or whatever you can get to stick to them. Then even if they fired her it would be as the hero instead of the villain, and she can go to work filing civil suits of the sort that criminal justice reform advocates are always wanting to, but with a head full of insider information.
That is how you redeem yourself after you make a mistake, not by denying everything and going back to business as usual.
[1] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/obama-taps-fift/