The Blame Game

Here's the official white house talking point on calls for accountability:

MR. McCLELLAN: What you're doing is trying to engage in a game of finger-pointing and blame-gaming. What we're trying to do is solve problems. (Press briefing 9/7/05)

This is an administration that has been steadfast in its refusal to be held accountable. They now consider accountability to be a game, a blame game of finger pointing. They reduce the necessary burden of accountability, the infamous "buck stops here" nature of leadership, to a child's game of "nyah, nyah, nyah". It's a weak response and one we can't allow.

If the administration is right and the failure in New Orleans is the fault of the local and state government and the citizens who didn't evacuate, then they should embrace the opportunity to determine accountability. That they don't tells us all we need to know.

UPDATE:
Just a note that in today's press briefing, McClellan used a variation of the phrase "blame game" and the and "finger-pointing" sixteen times each.In yesterday's press briefing, he referenced "blame game" six times.The day before, he didn't use it once. Let's make sure this talking point doesnt' grow legs.

Comments

[eRobin]

That phrase "blame-game" makes me sick to my stomach. It is, as you say, so third grade. Norbizness had a funny use for it today. He said something like, "Hey all you blame-gamers!"

[Matthew C. Aycock]

Again, I think that the time to focus on what went wrong is after all lives are saved that can be saved. When the process is still ongoing, it is wise to not impede it with roadblocks of determining specific accountability.

Would you prefer the President and his Admininstration say, "We screwed up. I am sorry. We all resign." ? You can't tell me that the clusterfuck to follow would help the people of New Orleans either.

[Kathy]

Would you prefer the President and his Admininstration say, "We screwed up. I am sorry. We all resign."

Well, it would be a start to hear them say "we screwed up" instead of blaming the evacuees or the local/state government. They don't have to resign - mistakes aren't an immediate mandate to exit (if they were, we'd already have wholesale change at the top given the fiasco in Iraq). But they have to take responsibility for their own screw ups before they get the privilege of pointing the finger at anyone else. And when the crisis is under contro and no sooner or later, they have to get rid of anyone incompentent. I'd FEMA head Brown leads that list.

[Matthew C. Aycock]

What exactly do they need to do to convince you that they are taking responsibility for this? Do you want them to stop what they are doing and have a press conference with everyone involved in saving people? This would take those people out of rescue mode and result in more deaths, but at least you would be happy. Or would you blame them for that too?

[Kathy]

How about dropping the "blame game" talking point? How about saying "we know that FEMA didn't meet the reasonable expectations of Americans"? How about they stop having press conferences where they list all their accomplishments as though we should all weep in gratitude? How about they stop bragging about how much they're doing now? How about they call the dogs off that are pointing the finger at local/state gov't? How about they say something very simple like "The most basic role of government is to provide for the safety of its citizens and I deeply regret that this government did not meet that most basic of burdens. As President/Secretary of Homeland Security/Director of FEMA, it's my responsibility. And I deeply regret this failure and vow to do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens again."

How about that?

[Matthew C. Aycock]

Um, Bush stated something very similar to that quite a while back. Remember when he stated that the response was unacceptable and that he planned to get to the bottom of it? Have you not noticed a huge turnaround in performance since he has done so?

Or would you rather him cut and paste your above statement and endorse it?

[Kathy]

Think he could do both?

[Matthew C. Aycock]

Looks like you got your wish.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169227,00.html