The shame of all of this is that they will still go on and on. They are too heavily invested to back down now!
They would all look like asses! Even if you shoved this quote down their throats you would get a response like: well, (blah, blah,) we are still doing a good work...and the end is coming anyway.
You're absolutely right, LongHairGal. Plus they can always say, "Oh, that was a mistake, and our leaders owned up to it." What they won't readily own up to is the 50+ years of subsequent coverup (courts of law call that perjury, common folks call that lying). Recall, when Rutherford was questioned in 1926 by some reporter:
Question : Have the ancient worthies returned?
Answer : ?Certainly they have not returned. No one has seen them, and it would be foolish to make such an announcement. It was stated in the ?Millions? book that we might reasonably expect them to return shortly after 1925, but this was merely an expressed opinion; besides it is still shortly after 1925?? WT 1926, p. 196.
When he said, "I made an ass of myself", I'm not certain he regretted endorsing the prediction (beginning in 1917) or attempting to cover it up there in 1926.