When it came out that Arizona Senator Jeff Flake‘s kid has been using racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic language online, the Senator apologized.

Speaking of 15-year-old Tanner Flake, the Republican Senator told BuzzFeed, “I’m very disappointed in my teenage son’s words, and I sincerely apologize for the insensitivity. This language is unacceptable, anywhere. Needless to say, I’ve already spoken with him about this, he has apologized, and I apologize as well.”

No no no. Needless to say, a second-hand apology is no good.

The younger Flake repeatedly denigrated others (including the person who stole his bike while he was in church) as fags or faggots. (This would be a Mormon church, since the Flakes are Latter Day Saints.) He referred to Mexicans as “scum of the earth” and “beaners.” He capped a complaint that someone else regularly got laughs with other people’s funny lines with the punchline: “Jew.” His screen name for the game Fun Run was “n1ggerkiller.” A peculiar tweet from a year ago reads “Holy crap. Today this song started to play and I said ZOMG i love this song! And then some nigger started rapping and I looked at her album art and saw that it was Flo Rida. She then proceeded to explain to me that it was Flo Rida’s song. I just about smashed that iPod.”

Needless to say, that’s nasty stuff.

Wow, you’re a tough crowd! (Photo: Gage Skidmore.)

You know the unacceptable language probably passes as acceptable in Tanner’s peer group, which I expect consists of teenaged white boys from prosperous families. (There are probably some kids in the group who don’t like it, but are afraid to say so.)

(I note the absence of nastiness directed at females. Did someone teach the junior Flake to respect women? His mother and sisters, maybe?)

Fifteen-year-olds often say horrible things. They’re fooling around, they’re trying to impress, they’re experimenting with images. Tanner Flake may turn out to be a great person. He may be a good kid right now when he doesn’t have access to keyboards. Needless to say, I don’t want to condemn someone this young for typing such nasty garbage. But then, needless to say, I’m not his parent.

But 15-year-olds CAN APOLOGIZE THEMSELVES for things they’ve said. Parents often MAKE THEIR KIDS APOLOGIZE when they’ve said horrible things. That’s what’s missing. I’d like to think that if his parents found out this kid had been shoplifting, they’d make him return the goods and apologize. If you’re old enough to come up with the name ‘n1ggerkiller” to play Fun Run, you’re old enough to apologize for doing it. Really, HE CAN DO IT.

But no, they’re protecting him. I can see not putting him in front of cameras, but why can’t he write a statement? Is it because they don’t see his offense the way we do?

Senator Flake tells us his son has apologized. (WHAT DID HE SAY?) As in the case where Tommy Thompson told us his son Jason had apologized for race-baiting campaign activities, this raises the question of what the son is apologizing for. Is it for making mean racist remarks and spreading ugly racist attitudes? Isn’t it really for embarrassing Dad?

This is unlikely to help the Senator’s already low, “pond scum” level approval ratings. It takes away from a recent effort to portray the Senator’s family life in a positive way with glowing stories about a recent vacation. Although the Deseret News (owned by the Mormon Church) is still running with that.

They’ve just put out a cheery story about the Senator going on a “survival-type family trip” with Tanner and Flake’s younger son Dallin . They were in the Marshall Islands for 4 days with nothing to eat but coconuts, crabs, and fish they speared themselves, and nothing to drink but water they desalinated themselves with a manual pump. In the evenings they talked about what they would eat when they got back home, but also had “deeper conversations,” Flake reported. Maybe not deep enough.