The Pack Mentality

Even though Karl Rove is off the hook, I think it was quite wise for the White House to distance itself (at least ostensibly) from him during the "staff shake up" a month ago. Now that he's been cleared, he'll likely get back to his old dirty tricks. Still, this Rove drama makes me wonder why Bush never canned the publicly blighted, Abu Ghraib-stained Rumsfeld.
I think there is a great way for politicians to deal with problems, and that is to just use a fallout man who takes all the bullets and dies in a press-fueled extravaganza of blame. This tactic seemed to work beautifully with Michael Brown post-Katrina.

Considering how well it works, it always surprises me when politicians or pundits don't use the fallout man tactic.
For example, I remember watching Ann Coulter on one of CNN's "let each side talk for 30 seconds and we'll call it a debate" sessions in the wake of the Tom Delay scandal, and it just completely baffled me that she referred to Delay as an "honorable man"--this, after Delay had given up his bid for reelection (probably because the Abramoff related evidence was simply too strong) Coulter's defense of Delay just did not make any sense to me. Wouldn't the smart move have been to disavow Delay as corrupt, leave the injured calf in the desert to die, and say "don't let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch?" Sticking to the pack mentality just undermines Coulter's credibility, which is already in short supply.

If only the White House could find a fallout man for the Iraq War. Maybe they could use James Franco.