As anyone who has commanded a vessel at sea knows, the delegation of responsibility does not relileve the commander of responsibility. This is a hard rule, but it has been evolved through hundreds of years of naval operations as a necessary one: you are responsible for events on your watch even if you did not cause them immediately or asked someone else to handle them. You will notice that FEMA's head of operations has just been replaced by a naval officer. This may be a hopeful sign, if extraordinarily late in coming. Bobby "Bang-up Job" Brown has been sidelined from managing the Katrina situation.

If this had been a naval situation, of course, the whole crew would have drowned by now, but that's why we are so forgiving toward our landlubbery, bumbling politicians: they are held to a more rotten standard.

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