I quite enjoy reading Andrew Sullivan, and i am strongly sympathetic to his perspective, given that he is clearly an American at this point, but with a very British sense of justice. In that frame of mind he’s been calling for Janet Napolitano to resign, in the face of the US Gov’s failure to stop the Christmas Day Crotch Bomber. But i think that Sullivan’s British sense of justice is getting the better of his good sense about American political dynamics.
I agree in principle that people should be held accountable if they have failed at their job. I too was braying for Alberto Gonzales’s blood along w/ everyone else. But there is an important distinction between the political mechanisms involved in Parliamentary systems of government in the UK and Canada, and the US and that is, the nomination and approval process of cabinet positions.
In Canada and the UK you can have a Defense Cabinet Minister, or Health Cabinet Minister resign, because the Prime Minister can just replace him or her with another member of Parliament (With the Queen’s or the Governor General’s rubber stamp). There is an ample pool of bodies ready and able to fill that cabinet slot. This is distinctly not a possibility in the US (particularly given the current political climate), where each Presidential nominee has to wait out Republican obstructionism in the Senate, even before being subjected the committee process, and then running the gauntlet of the full senate.
In the end it’s true, you could have Janet Napolitano resign on the principle of the matter, but which would you prefer: Secretary Napolitano, now? or a headless DHS for the next 6-12 months?
