The Un-Responsibility Era

George W. Bush at the 2000 RNC Gala:

And this is what it will take for our country to usher in a new era, an era that will stand in stark contrast to the last decades, which have said, "If it feels good, do it, and if you've got a problem blame someone else. As President, I will work with all Americans to usher in the responsibility era where all citizens know they are responsible for the choices they make and accountable for the actions they take.

Yet, strangely enough, this "responsibility era" ushered in by the President seems to be the exact opposite of the one he described in 2000; in this era, no one is held accountable for the actions they take. The most glaring example of this, of course, is that not one member of the President's cabinet has been asked to resign as a result of 9-11, or for that matter, the failures connected to the war in Iraq.

On that note, there's this from Rudy Giuliani's testimony yesterday before the 9-11 commission.

So our anger should clearly be directed and the blame should clearly be directed at one source and one source alone -- the terrorists who killed our loved ones.

...

I believed then, I believe now, that the terrorists had two purposes in attacking us. One purpose was to kill many, many people to make some kind of, in their words, spectacular demonstration. And the other was to break our will, because they were convinced we were a weak people, that we would become disunited, that we would start fighting with each other, that there would be tremendous chaos and confusion.

SHORTER GIULIANI: If this commission suggests that anything could have been done to prevent 9-11, the terrorists will have won.