What will "responsibility" look like? or Let a thousand New Corporate Carpetbaggers bloom!
martini_2olives said...
Hi Martini_2olives:
Thanks for posting. Sure I can. Just like Don Rumsfeld said, "I take responsibility for Abu Ghraib." and then NOTHING REALLY HAPPENED. I've read the Schlesinger Report, the Taguba Report and the Fay/Jones Report. Lots of people should have been fired/court marshaled based on those reports. At least 50 people including Rumsfeld should no longer be part of our government.
That is what should have happened when Rummy "took responsibility". But those actions didn't happen.
That is the issue. What are the ACTIONS? What Will be the actions? I'll reserve judgment until I see them. Will the contracts to rebuild be no-bid? Will they pay the going wage? Will they be non-crony? Will an independent commission find out what went wrong? Will changes be made so that future disasters avoid the tragedy in the Hurricane K. zone? Will people be fired? Or will only people at the lower levels be blamed, as happened at Abu Ghraib?
Then, where is the PERSONAL responsibility? Did he say, "I should have paid closer attention to the news while on vacation. I should have read the reports. I was mistaken when I said no one anticipated the levees breaking. Had I read the reports I would have seen that it was very well documented that anything above a Cat 3 would need massive Federal support in the form of helicopters, trucks, buses and the national guard to help evacuate the city. I should have let my aides interrupt me while I was bike riding and playing guitar. Because I was so disengaged, people died.”
I think this is what Bush thinks of when he hears Truman's famous phrase:
Now I know you might think, "Oh, Spocko's never satisfied." And you may be right, it is because time and again they have used these PR techniques to avoid taking true responsibility or pay the price for their mistakes, so now just saying the words (like Rumsfeld did) doesn't mean much to me.
Interestingly, I think that the rightwing pundit infrastructure will do exactly what you did and say, "See? He took responsibility. What more do you want?" I want people fired. I want him to realize that he's not up for the job and quit. Although I would really enjoy him, Cheney, Condi, and Rumy to all be impeached for gross incompetence, profiteering and influence peddling. I might also like to see them at The Hague for war crimes.
That would be taking responsibility. Those would be the actions that lead to accountability.
But, like a magic phrase that buys you time until people stop noticing, nothing is REALLY going to be done. Or it will be done, but with the standard, “Let my cronies get some of those sweet, sweet no-bid contracts.
Let a thousand New Corporate Carpetbaggers bloom!”
Now I could be wrong, but already the wheels of no-bid contracts and pushing the blame down are in motion.
In the past Karl realized that accepting responsibility or admitting mistakes was something that the BASE didn't feel Bush needed to do. They LIKED the "I'm the stern father figure and saying I'm sorry is for weak women and crybabies like Clinton."
In their mind saying you are sorry didn't WIN them anything. They didn't get any real points from their base and the opposition wasn't going to cut them much slack, so the theory was, "Focus on the attitudes of the base. They are the only opinions that count. They don't want to admit mistakes so we won't." And frankly they were very clever and largely correct in this assessment.
Only now even the crazy base think that maybe, just maybe things could have gone better. And they will take the blame out on BIG GOVERNMENT. Not the president and his incompetent administration. So blaming the failure of the GOVERNMENT is okay. But just as long as they don't say, THIS ADMINSTRATION’S EXECUTION OF THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT is BAD.
They like to do that, they blame "the bureaucrats" as if they can' t do anything with all the power they have in the three branches of government. They can cut through a lot of red tape and get bills passed when it comes to one comatose woman in Florida, why can't they use some of that efficient bill passing power when it comes to fixing the south? But of course they will say that they can't help unless they get all these environmental and wage concessions. Why not work WITH the two groups? I'm sure they want the south to be reconstructed just as much as you do, only they want to do things that might make the lives of the people living there better!
Let's not pass another Patriot Act bill. Remember, Reconstruction is very different from Disaster relief. But of course they will bully their way through a bill that has both and if anyone objects it will be, "Why do people who oppose 'The Southern States Rebuilding Act' hate the South? Don't they WANT to have more homes?
They must WANT people to keep living in the Thunderdome.
If they don't vote for this act they are saying 'Screw you" to Hurricane Katrine Disaster victims.
/God I hate it when I predict this stuff. I'm right 2 out of 3 times.
I read this the other day and I thought it was relevant: "People always like to quote Harry Truman "The Buck Stops here",
but I don't know if people realize how radical that was at the time and how rare it has become in this government. The first impulse with politicians is NOT to take responsibility. This applies to MOST politicians, but again as Olbermann states, this admin has been touting that they are the ones that can handle this, "The Grown ups." Grown up take responsibility, they don't blame the kids for not knowing how to do everything perfect."
I understand that you aren't a Bush fan and I don't have a problem with that. HOWEVER, it is my opinion that you can't have it both ways. You can't bemoan the fact that he wasn't accepting responsibility and then when he does blast him for doing it.
Just pick one gut reaction and go with it.
Hi Martini_2olives:
Thanks for posting. Sure I can. Just like Don Rumsfeld said, "I take responsibility for Abu Ghraib." and then NOTHING REALLY HAPPENED. I've read the Schlesinger Report, the Taguba Report and the Fay/Jones Report. Lots of people should have been fired/court marshaled based on those reports. At least 50 people including Rumsfeld should no longer be part of our government.
That is what should have happened when Rummy "took responsibility". But those actions didn't happen.
That is the issue. What are the ACTIONS? What Will be the actions? I'll reserve judgment until I see them. Will the contracts to rebuild be no-bid? Will they pay the going wage? Will they be non-crony? Will an independent commission find out what went wrong? Will changes be made so that future disasters avoid the tragedy in the Hurricane K. zone? Will people be fired? Or will only people at the lower levels be blamed, as happened at Abu Ghraib?
Then, where is the PERSONAL responsibility? Did he say, "I should have paid closer attention to the news while on vacation. I should have read the reports. I was mistaken when I said no one anticipated the levees breaking. Had I read the reports I would have seen that it was very well documented that anything above a Cat 3 would need massive Federal support in the form of helicopters, trucks, buses and the national guard to help evacuate the city. I should have let my aides interrupt me while I was bike riding and playing guitar. Because I was so disengaged, people died.”
I think this is what Bush thinks of when he hears Truman's famous phrase:
Now I know you might think, "Oh, Spocko's never satisfied." And you may be right, it is because time and again they have used these PR techniques to avoid taking true responsibility or pay the price for their mistakes, so now just saying the words (like Rumsfeld did) doesn't mean much to me.
Interestingly, I think that the rightwing pundit infrastructure will do exactly what you did and say, "See? He took responsibility. What more do you want?" I want people fired. I want him to realize that he's not up for the job and quit. Although I would really enjoy him, Cheney, Condi, and Rumy to all be impeached for gross incompetence, profiteering and influence peddling. I might also like to see them at The Hague for war crimes.
That would be taking responsibility. Those would be the actions that lead to accountability.
But, like a magic phrase that buys you time until people stop noticing, nothing is REALLY going to be done. Or it will be done, but with the standard, “Let my cronies get some of those sweet, sweet no-bid contracts.
Let a thousand New Corporate Carpetbaggers bloom!”
Now I could be wrong, but already the wheels of no-bid contracts and pushing the blame down are in motion.
In the past Karl realized that accepting responsibility or admitting mistakes was something that the BASE didn't feel Bush needed to do. They LIKED the "I'm the stern father figure and saying I'm sorry is for weak women and crybabies like Clinton."
In their mind saying you are sorry didn't WIN them anything. They didn't get any real points from their base and the opposition wasn't going to cut them much slack, so the theory was, "Focus on the attitudes of the base. They are the only opinions that count. They don't want to admit mistakes so we won't." And frankly they were very clever and largely correct in this assessment.
Only now even the crazy base think that maybe, just maybe things could have gone better. And they will take the blame out on BIG GOVERNMENT. Not the president and his incompetent administration. So blaming the failure of the GOVERNMENT is okay. But just as long as they don't say, THIS ADMINSTRATION’S EXECUTION OF THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT is BAD.
They like to do that, they blame "the bureaucrats" as if they can' t do anything with all the power they have in the three branches of government. They can cut through a lot of red tape and get bills passed when it comes to one comatose woman in Florida, why can't they use some of that efficient bill passing power when it comes to fixing the south? But of course they will say that they can't help unless they get all these environmental and wage concessions. Why not work WITH the two groups? I'm sure they want the south to be reconstructed just as much as you do, only they want to do things that might make the lives of the people living there better!
Let's not pass another Patriot Act bill. Remember, Reconstruction is very different from Disaster relief. But of course they will bully their way through a bill that has both and if anyone objects it will be, "Why do people who oppose 'The Southern States Rebuilding Act' hate the South? Don't they WANT to have more homes?
They must WANT people to keep living in the Thunderdome.
If they don't vote for this act they are saying 'Screw you" to Hurricane Katrine Disaster victims.
/God I hate it when I predict this stuff. I'm right 2 out of 3 times.
3 Comments:
There's a major difference between taking responsibility and spinning an act of responsibility.
In the first, you really do something to improve a situation.
In the second, you make noise like you care and then furiously try to cover up your misdeeds.
Bush spins like a hurricane, with calm in his eye and the force of a bad wind.
I guess it all boils down to we see what we want to see.
Depending on your party affiliation, you either see someone who has at least attempted to take some responsibility or someone who is using PR as a means to avoid responsibility.
It really sucks to be right.
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