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#1
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OT Bush's Accountability
It may have taken a DVD reel of recent news coverage and plummeting
poll numbers to get President Bush to admit he made a mistake during his presidency, but a rare moment of accountability has come and with it, the opportunity to turn over a new leaf on his leadership.Yesterday, Bush acknowledged for the first time that he bore final responsibility for his administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. True, his statement was highly conditional (he actually said, "to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility"); and true, he went on to falsely suggest that criticism of the federal government's response equates to criticism of the first responders. But for a president who has spent nearly five years adamantly "resist[ing] publicly acknowledging mistakes or shortcomings," Bush should be commended for making clear that the buck stops, once and for all, at the Oval Office. We hope the president won't stop with Katrina. REAL ACCOUNTABILITY: Since President Bush is in the mood to begin taking responsibility, there are a number of other issues for which he should also be held accountable. For instance, when will he finally accept responsibility for launching a war of choice based on flawed intelligence against a country that was not an imminent threat to the United States? Or the tripling of global terrorist attacks under his watch? When will he stand accountable for the $1.40 increase in the price of gas per gallon over the past four years, and the all-time high trade deficit, now nearing $700 billion? And when will he tell ordinary Americans that he is ultimately responsible for the 7 percent decrease in the real value of the minimum wage, the 11 percent increase in poverty, and the 6 million new uninsured Americans since he took office, or the four straight years of declining median household incomes? RESPONSE APPARENTLY NOT THAT EXCEPTIONAL: When President Bush said he would take responsibility for the federal response "to the extent [it] didn't do its job right," what was he referring to? After all, most administration officials seemed mostly pleased with the response. Michael Chertoff claimed the federal government's efforts had been "really exceptional." Vice President Dick Cheney agreed they were "definitely very impressive." Even Michael Brown was praised. Bush famously told "Brownie" he was "doing a heck of a job." On the day Brown was removed from oversight of the Katrina response, Michael Chertoff claimed he had "done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge." And after he stepped down from FEMA, Brown admitted "the resignation was his idea. He spoke on Saturday to White House chief of staff Andy Card, who did not request his departure, according to Brown." BLAME GAME OVER: President Bush's remarks yesterday stand in stark contrast to his claims in the first days of the Katrina crisis. Then, as administration officials faced increasingly difficult questions about their response to the disaster, the White House rallied around a single talking point: critics calling for accountability were merely trying to "play the blame game." Now, with President Bush's statement, the blame game is officially over. As Bush stated on the day of his swearing in, "Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience." There was never a blame game to begin with -- just a demand for accountability |
#2
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Have you ever had any original thoughts Kevin, or are cut 'n pastes the best
you can offer? I am not asking this to knock you. I would really like a straight answer. All I ever read in your posts are the thoughts of others. |
#3
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