NEWTON'S LAW: DAVID DUKE'S ACT OF DENIAL DOESN'T MASK UGLY MESSAGE

There is an old saying that retains its popularity among defense attorneys and spouse-cheaters.

Various politicians utilize it as well, though maybe not word for word.

The saying is this: "Deny, deny, deny ... even if they have pictures."

There is nothing so final and unforgiving as a guilty plea. The only recourse from such a plea is forgiveness, and that's never a sure bet these days.

Imagine the bleak opportunities for mercy for a politician who is both guilty of a crime and inconstant of wedding vows.

Not even David Duke's problems are heaped so high. But he is something of a standard for denial this week.

Duke dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday. He called a press conference to announce this, which served roughly two purposes: one, obviously, to say he was no longer a candidate, and, two, to remind people he had been a candidate.

Oh, yeah, people said, so that's what David Duke's been up to.

To say that David Duke's campaign never caught fire is to say ... well, that crosses never caught fire in his past.

As a son of Louisiana, Duke took the slogan "Sportsman's Paradise" to mean hunting controversy. It's never out of season if you have the right script. Duke did.

If nothing else, Duke proved that a person can't always parlay leadership in one organization (in this case, grand wizardry in the Ku Klux Klan) into leadership of more august measure.

It's one thing to have a resume that boasts civic club chair~manship as part of a candidate's background. It serves notice that the office hopeful is capable of leading others.

When you're the founder of a group called the National Association for the Advancement of White People, and wear a Nazi uniform to one of its public gatherings, it tends to sour the vita.

What does it take to exhibit charisma in such an organization? Maybe it's just a guy with the best-ironed sheet.

Duke, who says he abandoned those days for a more mainstream philosophy and brand of politics, managed to put a good face on things and win an election in his home state, where the statehouse is something of a rogue's gallery even on its least embarrassing days.

Given a taste of representation in the Louisiana House, Duke ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 1990, and lost, and then for the governorship last year, and lost again.

Riding this streak of regression, Duke sought to climb out of his slump by seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Once you develop an appetite for high-level boneheadedness, no small dose will do.

A tree that falls in a forest with no one around to hear it is said to make no sound. David Duke fell upon a nation bleating his ugly message and produced only obscurity.

For his months on the stump, for all the hands shaken and the speeches made, David Duke acquired the same number of Republican delegates as I have.

Thus, Duke went to Washington Wednesday at his own invitation and told the nation's media he was no longer a contender. Thanks for the scoop.

In a bit of laughable spin control, Duke informed the press his campaign went nowhere because he started it too late.

Well, yeah ... about 140 years too late.

"Once you get behind in the media recognition, and once you get behind in the fund-raising, it's tough to catch up," he said in conceding the race to others in the GOP. "I don't think the American people see me as a racist."

He doesn't yet get it. Remember this: "Deny, deny, deny ...."