Filed under: Alberto Gonzales, Henry Waxman, Pat Tillman, Personal responsibility, politics
I’ve been following the House committee’s investigation of the mishandling of the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. A few days ago, this quote by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) was the New York Times’ quote of the day:
“You’ve all admitted that the system failed; none of you feel personnally responsible. Somebody should be responsible.”
I would go a step further than Rep. Waxman and say that not only should somebody (former defense secretary Rumsfled? retired generals Myers and Abizaid?) be responsible for the cover up, somebody should be held accountable, which would require this illusive somebody to accept the consequences of their actions in addition to admitting wrongdoing.
I’m left wondering how and why it has become so commonplace to admit malfeasances and to claim responsibility without accepting accountability and expecting consequences to ensue! In addition to the Tillman debacle, there’s Alberto Gonzales who admits that he is responsible for what happens at the Department of Justice, acknowledges that mistakes were made with the firing of US Attorneys, and yet feels fully entitled to keep his job. No consequences for him! The Bush administration admits there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but what are the consequences of starting a war under false pretenses? Who should be held accountable? The list goes on and on ad nauseam: Tom Delay, Ken Lay and Enron, and what about Hollywood’s examples, such as celebutante Paris Hilton, who admits to driving on a suspended license, but who tells Larry King after her release from jail that her sentence was unwarranted?
Simply acknowledging wrongdoing or misdeeds is not the magic formula for making consequences vanish; there’s no quid pro quo. I’m not sure what happened to the idea that responsibility and accountability go hand in hand, but it needs to make a comeback.
