archy

Who writes this stuff?
John J. McKay is an underemployed, grumpy, and aging liberal who lives in a small house with his clever wife, two cats, and a couple thousand books. To comment on anything in archy, send him an e-mail.

Mammoth Tales progress

Who is archy?
I introduced the patron cockroach, his creator, and his definitive artist in these two early posts.
One. Two.

Other sources of archy information
John Batteiger's DonMarquis.com
Jim Ennes's DonMarquis.org

Blogs I'm reading this week
Ahistoricality
Alicublog
The American Street
Bad Tux the Snarky Penguin
Bartholomew's notes on religion
Cocktail Party Physics
Cosmic Variance
Daily Kos
Demisemiblog
Dum Luks
The Early Days of a Better Nation
Eschaton
Firedoglake
The Greenbelt
Hatewatch
Hulabaloo
John Hawk's Weblog
Michael Bérubé
Mudflats
MyDD
The Nattering Nabob
Orcinus
Pacific Views
Pam's House Blend
Pandagon
The Panda's Thumb
Paperwight's Fair Shot
Peevish...I'm Just Saying
Pharyngula
Political Animal
Progressive Alaska
Progressive Gold
Rev. BigDumbChimp
Roger Ailes
Sadly, No!
ScienceBlogs
Seeing the Forest
Shakesville
Skeptico
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Slacktivist
Talk to Action
Talking Points Memo
TBOGG
That Would Be Me
Thinking Meat
Why Now?
Witness for the Prosecution
World O' Crap

The Liberal Coalition
archy
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Blog Around the Clock
Bloggg
Collective Sigh
Corrente (new home)
Corrente (old haunted mansion)
Dohiyi Mir
Echidne of the Snakes
First Draft
Florida Progressive Coalition Blog
Grateful Dread Radio
Iddybud Journal
The Invisible Library
Left is Right
Lefty Side of the Dial
Musing's musings
Pen-Elayne
Rational Animal
Rick's Cafe Americain
Rook's Rant
Rubber Hose
Scrutiny Hooligans
SoonerThought
Speedkill
Stupid Enough Unexplanation
WTF Is It Now??
Yellow Doggerel Democrat
You Are a Tree

This site is certified 69% GOOD by the Gematriculator

Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]

Archives

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Princess Bride gambit

Vizzini: He didn't fall! Inconceivable!
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I know that joke is starting to get old, but it is the clearest statement of a recurring theme that has run through this administration from the beginning. Today, the word is “responsibility.”

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales just held a press conference about the exploding scandal of politicized firings of at least eight US Attorneys. Gonzales says he "accepts responsibility," even though it's not his fault, he didn't know anything about it, and that the real person behind it all was his chief of staff who just quit. How many times have members of this administration used the phrase "I accept responsibility" to mean just the opposite? They seem to think of it as a magic "Get out of Jail Free" card that absolves them of any need to face consequences--the very definition of accepting responsibility.

Actually, saying the magic words doesn't work by itself. They must be accompanied by throwing an underling to the wolves. It works best if it's someone who recently left the administration and has had critical words, but anyone will do. It's a lot like the failure of a Soviet five-year plan. Failure was never the fault of the planners at the top; failure was caused by saboteurs below. All that was necessary to accept responsibility, was to locate the disloyal underlings and publicly purge them. Once the leaders had destroyed enough lives below them, they could relax and enjoy the perks of being on top--until someone above them felt the need to accept responsibility.

This little pre-fab drama works remarkably well, but it can't be repeated indefinitely. Sooner or later, the audience grows bored and the wolves get bolder. This drama has blown up remarkably fast and shows no sign of settling down. It might be inconceivable to Bush, Rove, Cheney, and Gonzales, but their little "accepting responsibility" act might not be enough this time.

Labels: politics, scandals

posted by John at 12:24 PM |