The Rethuglican Ideal of Responsibility

[womzilla]

Juan Cole:

It is remarkable how the US press allows themselves to be manipulated by the government. When the Abu Ghuraib story broke, Bush just issued a statement that he was disgusted, taking no responsibility. The headlines the next day? "Bush Disgusted by Photos." The proper headline would have been "Permanent Damage to US Image in Muslim World; Bush Fires No One."

I don't know who first brought this idea to my attention, but it was almost certainly either Josh Marshall or Atrios: Over the last 42 months, the US government has made a very large number of errors, ranging from "not detecting the September 11th attacks" to "completely botching the Iraq occupation". No one has ever lost his or her job over these errors. Period.

What the hell is up with that?

Comments

[john-d-owen.livejournal.com]

The only reason for being fired in the Bush Administration is for not toeing the party line (ie, Paul O'Neill) or for trying to bring unpalatable information to the fore (ie, Richard Clarke). Incompetence simply isn't a sackable offence with these guys (otherwise they'd all be back in their cushy CEO jobs with defence and energy contractors, wouldn't they?)