I'm hearing/reading two phrases over and over in the coverage of the Katrina aftermath — "This is no time to play the Blame Game" and "Mistakes were made." Generally, the latter is a variation on the former, with the speaker admitting the undeniable and sticking to the passive voice until he or she can figure out how to fill in the blank in the active form of that sentence — "___ made mistakes" — with something other than "I" or "we."
Employing the first phrase is roughly similar to Dennis Rodman, late in the fourth quarter with his team down several points, trying to do a lay up and get the ball in the net while at the same time trying to convince his opponents, "This is no time to shoot baskets." There is no one suggesting we suspend the Blame Game who isn't out there, one way or another, playing the Blame Game. No one. What's interesting is that a lot of them seem to think this is a winner-take-all competition, meaning that if you can get the greatest amount of the criticism to fall on someone else, your own screw-ups will be overlooked.
Actually, we already have one acknowledged winner in the Blame Game: Michael Brown, head of FEMA. In a rare display of bi-partisanship, folks from all sides declared him inarguably negligent. Some were probably just trying to divert responsibility from their team but Brown seemed so inept, at least in TV interviews, that he quickly became the one thing everyone could agree upon. In a way, he's more or less been eliminated from the Blame Game, much like a few years ago when everyone agreed that John Larroquette had won the Best Supporting Actor Emmy so many times that it wasn't fair to keep giving it to him. If Brown had any class, he would have made a little speech like Larroquette did, announcing he was dropping out of the competition so somebody else could get what they deserved.
Which is not to say we won't be hearing a lot about this man. Brown retires undefeated from the Blame Game to determine who should have/could have done more for the victims in the Gulf Coast, but there's still the other Blame Game. That's the one to decide who's responsible for Michael Brown and for the incompetence and cronyism that had FEMA not doing any of the things they were expected to do.
In the meantime, back at the Main Event, people are writing articles that argue that Blanco erred more than Bush, or that Bush was more negligent than Blanco, or that Nagin did everything right or everything wrong. Those on the national level seem to think that they can emerge relatively unscathed if they can just direct the anger towards the State and/or Local level, and the State and Local folks are blaming the Feds and sometimes each other.
It's kind of like The Three Stooges destroyed your house and Moe thinks he can get off scot free if he points the finger at Larry and Curly. Personally, I think this disaster is so large that the Blame Game can and should have multiple winners, starting with everyone who's now saying "This is no time to play the Blame Game" and "Mistakes were made." And I don't think anyone should come away from this looking innocent just because they managed to manipulate the press and the facts to get themselves into second or third place.