Did the Republican Party "apologize" for the southern strategy?

A recent conspiracy theory has been going around Democrat far left media outlets claiming that the Republican Party admitted to and apologized for the so-called southern strategy.

The southern strategy is a Democrat conspiracy theory claiming that the two parties spontaneously switched positions and all members switched parties the moment the Republicans signed the civil Rights act

one of the claims Democrats try to use to bolster the conspiracy theory is to claim that the Republican Party admitted to using the southern strategy.on We fact check this and found it to be false.

The claim they use is to claim that Republican chairman Ken mehlman apologized for it in a speech. But the quote that they use is taking egregiously out of context and heavily doctored when they distributed

The actual quote is as follows

e based on the quote a  he was not admitting to some southern strategy but lamenting help some of his fellow Republicans had given up trying to pander to the African-American community.