Thursday, December 15, 2005

Responsibility (But Not the Blame)

One of the entertainers who appeared on the last Ed Sullivan Show was impressionist David Frye. Frye earned his claim to fame as the most popular impersonator of one Richard Milhaus Nixon. One of his routines from "I Am the President" eerily addresses [P]resident Bush's recent admission that he takes responsibility for the war in Iraq.

In discussing the Watergate fiasco (PRIOR to Nixon's resignation from the presidency), Frye/Nixon explained that he was indeed responsible for the imbroglio BUT it was not his fault. You see, Frye/Nixon reasoned that people who accept responsibility keep their jobs; people who are to blame lose theirs.

And so it is with Dubya. The way he looks at it is that it's his overall responsibility because he's the Commander-in-Chief, but it's not HIS fault. No, the fault is placed with those who provided him with bad intelligence.

Of course, the one bug in the ointment is that the intelligence, for the most part, was dead on target. He simply ignored what he didn't like and blew out of proportion what he did like.

In the end, like the real Nixon, Bush is both responsible AND at fault.

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