This one comes to me from Joe Wilmont, who showed the good sense to sit through most of my panels at this year's Comic-Con International. Therefore, I can't argue too much with him when he writes…
I agree and disagree with your "rant." I think there has been a lack of accountability but there has also been a tendency to blame Republicans. I don't see the Democratic party as a party of ideas so much as one that sits back, waits for Republicans to screw up and then says, "That's wrong." Whatever that is, it's not leadership and it's not going to get us anywhere. I know you think George W. Bush has been a bad president. I would be interested in hearing why you think people are not attacking Democrats in equal number.
Far be it from me to defend the "Democratic leadership" — a term that is more and more becoming an oxymoron. I agree they don't lead. On the other hand, when you find yourself shut out from all three branches of government, there's not all that much you can do except to carp. (Although it looks like Joe Lieberman's going to rightly get some of the blame for the appointment of Michael Brown to head FEMA.)
A lot of people seem to think that "fairness" demands that you criticize one Democrat for every Republican you fault and that you go 50-50 down the line. That would work if (a) the Democrats had 50% of the power and (b) both parties were at all times equally incompetent. The second comes close to happening over the long run but not always in any given time period. I was once at a seminar on political humor with a band of comedians and comedy writers, and someone in the audience complained that lately, there had been a lot more Dan Quayle jokes in the media than, say, Ted Kennedy jokes. Someone had to point out to this person that in the preceding weeks, Dan Quayle had been more visible than Ted Kennedy and had said dumber things than Ted Kennedy. I got up and said, "Tomorrow, if a Republican goes out and makes a major speech with his fly open, there are going to be a ton of jokes about that Republican, and it has nothing to do with him being a Republican. Fairness in comedy doesn't mean zinging both sides in equal numbers. It just means zinging them both when they're zingable. Eventually, some Democrat — probably Ted Kennedy — will have his fly open."
And that gets to the (a): At the time, Quayle was on the news more, trying to rehabilitate his image and convince America that he was presidential material. The guys in power — especially the ones who control the White House — are always going to be subject to more criticism than the guys who aren't. If Republicans are getting blamed more for things, maybe that's because they're in charge of more things. You know, it's like they say in Spider-Man: With great power comes great responsibility. When you control the government and the government screws up, who would you expect to get most of the criticism?