It isn’t often that you hear a politician take responsibility for a mistake and admit that he or she was wrong.

But U.S. Rep. Artur Davis is doing just that.

You might have seen Davis in a YouTube video put together by a GOP source to spotlight congressional Democrats’ unwillingness to recognize an auditor’s assessment that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had the makings of serious financial problems back in 2004.

I posted the video here on Sept. 30.

Well, Davis has now acknowledged that he was wrong back then. After the clip was shown on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes,” Davis released a statement in which he said, “I defended (Fannie’s and Freddie’s) efforts to encourage affordable homeownership, when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004.”

The Mobile Press-Register reports that a Davis spokeswoman said his “mea culpa been favorably received.”

And why shouldn’t it be? No one is perfect—including (and especially) politicians. How refreshing that a politician actually acknowledges that reality?

We shouldn’t expect politicians to be perfect. Given the nature of the job—making tough decisions as a matter of daily practice—it’s inevitable that they will slip up, whether in practice or philosophy—or both.

The difference is when they recognize it, admit it, learn from it and move on, determined not to make the same mistake again.

From the Press-Register:

In his statement, Davis added that he wished Republicans “would admit that they missed the early warning signs that Wall Street deregulation was overheating the securities market and promoting dangerously lax lending practices. When it comes to the debacle in our capital markets, there is much blame to go around for both sides.”

Yes, there is.

A cynic might say that Davis is operating in a political vacuum, desperate to minimize the damage this issue could do to his gubernatorial hopes. But hope springs eternal in the human breast, as in Mudville, and you know that idealism lives here on this blog. So here’s hoping that Davis’s colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, will follow his good example.

They, and the country, will be better for it.