Pass the Blame Game

This morning Ace of Spades is pointing out a convergence of two of Instapundit's favorite topics: Chris Dodd and the demise of Newspapers.

It seems that the Connecticut Post does want to give equal time to those whom might view prominent Democrats as the cause of the current fiscal crisis.

“All letters are welcome. But there are code words hidden in some that are signals to stop paying close attention — “Chris Dodd” and “Barney Frank.” According to one school of thinking, these two, more than anyone else in America, are to blame for our current troubles.

If you want to castigate their decision-making, fine. If you want to say they and they alone are to blame for the recession, that’s crazy. They didn’t even take over their congressional committees until early last year, and our problems started long before then.”

That's right, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were only wet-behind-the-ears, babes-in-the-woods Congresscritters before 2006, and could do nothing to stop the evil Bush profiteers. And people continue to wonder why no one bothers to read Newspapers anymore...

Now, the Post's rant is not entirely without merit, as it is true that there are many fathers/mothers to this crisis. However what the post is really trying to say in the text above is "All the blame lies with President Bush and Congressional Republicans. They have been in power for a long time, how could the Democrats be to blame?".

But, as many rational people know, national level problems of this nature do no pop up overnight, or even in 8 years. Things of this magnitude take years and years of bureaucratic mismanagement, political chicanery, and downright ineptitude to produce.

So to be fair to the Republicans as well, I think that the Post should also post the following graph:

“All letters are welcome. But there are code words hidden in some that are signals to stop paying close attention — “George Bush” and “Karl Rove.” According to one school of thinking, these two, more than anyone else in America, are to blame for our current troubles.

If you want to castigate their decision-making, fine. If you want to say they and they alone are to blame for the recession, that’s crazy. They didn’t even take over the White House until 2001, and our problems started long before then.”

Yes, the Post is right that this mess started before 2006, but that conveniently ignores Dodd's and Frank's (and others) actions (and inactions) before that point.