Rumsfeld is the designated fall guy: "'These events occurred on my watch,' he said. 'As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them.'"

I have a lot of problems with this guy as Sec Def, but will concede that this statement was nice to hear. Contrast that with this:

"One of the timeless truisms in the Harry Truman legacy was the presidential credo: "The buck stops here."

While there is plenty of blame to go around for the horrific handling of the Iraqi prisoners in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, President Bush bears the ultimate responsibility for what happened on his watch.

Under questioning recently, White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to say whether the president took responsibility for the disgraceful acts against prisoners in Iraq, though Bush has apologized for the degradation of the Iraqi prisoners, saying their treatment was "a stain on our country's honor and our country's uniform.""

Nothing is ever really Bush's fault, and evidently, nothing happens on his watch. In fact, he compounds this arrogance by then saying that Rummy is doing a "supurb" job. Really? I guess only if you are also doing a superb job. I have said this before, but the character issue here is huge for me. People who have no ability to take responsibility for the things they do wrong bother me, and we have a President who is incapable of it. Friends of mine dismiss it as either a function of the partisanship, or just a character flaw (though not a moral issue). But even George Will is starting to be critical of this administration:

"This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts. Thinking is not the reiteration of bromides about how "all people yearn to live in freedom" (McClellan). And about how it is "cultural condescension" to doubt that some cultures have the requisite aptitudes for democracy (Bush)."