Peggy Noonan Suddenly Favors Assigning Blame, Accountability

Posted by Blue Texan, Firedoglake at 2:53 PM on March 6, 2009.

Nooners, enthralled with the Marine Corps' routine investigation of the fatal F-18 crash in San Diego, quotes a Marine who's unhappy with the ways of Obama Washington.

...when the economy came crashing down, "nowhere did we see a board come out and say: 'This is what happened, these are the decisions these particular people made, and this was the result. They are no longer a part of our organization.' There was no timeline of events or laymen's explanation of how a credit derivative was actually derived. We did not see congressmen get on television with charts and eviscerate their organization and say, 'These were the men who in 2003 allowed Freddie and Fannie unlimited rein over mortgage securities.' Instead we saw . . . everybody against everybody else with no one stepping forth and saying, 'We screwed up…'" There is no one in national leadership who could convincingly "assign blame," and no one "who could or would accept it."

This of course is true, but somehow more stinging when said by a serviceman.

It is true. When there are national disasters of this magnitude, it is the government's obligation to hold hearings to figure out who screwed up and hold them accountable.

Except when a Republican is president:

Hearings Won't Make Us Safe

The hearings should not have been held, for one reason: Our country at this moment in history should not be focusing time and attention on who made mistakes and why and when. Not that these things don't matter; they do, desperately, and history will be full of the story. But we have a war to fight, a country to protect, and that is what should have precedence. 

And PS, 9/11 wasn't Bush's fault.

Blue Texan is a regular contributing blogger for FireDogLake.