From the "How Do You Know a Politician is Lying" Department

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The joke has been around for eons: "How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving." The sad thing is, it's not really all that much of a joke. The governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, has been in the news lately, and his moving lips are just making things worse. Yesterday (February 1) a photo surfaced of his med school yearbook of him and another person posing in a KKK robe and blackface. While not identifying which one Northam was (the blackface character or the Klansman), the governor quickly owned up to this "sin of the past" in a statement: Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive. I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now. This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today. I'm sure he thought that would soothe any ruffled feathers. Instead, the calls for his resignation have increased, from all sides of the political spectrum. So, today, he issued a second statement, completely contradicting the first: I believe now and then that I am not either of the people in this photo. This was not me in that picture. That was not Ralph Northam. He did, however, admit that he darkened his face for an appearance as Michael Jackson in a dance contest around the same time the controversial photo appeared. (Coincidentally, the "blackface" character" does resemble a Michael Jackson costume.) Well, which one is it? Oh, never mind, his lips are moving. A CNN article (which is frequently updated) about the controversy: