Taking responsibility

"'Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government.'" Mr. Bush said. 'And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility.'"

(Emphasis mine)

Who is going to ask the president why he is taking responsibility? Every president, by definition, is responsible for what the federal government does on his watch, regardless of whether his actions specifically resulted in the consequences under discussion.

Is that what he means?

In this case, there is a growing body of evidence that he is actually responsible. As in, key failures came as direct results of decisions he made and how he managed his job. His decisions to staff critical jobs with patronage hires, his decision to politicize FEMA, his decisions about how to run DHS.

Which does he mean? How is he taking responsibility?

--Josh Marshall (emphasis in original)