1115.org

Trying to be a smart aleck, I posted this comment after France’s World Cup victory over Brazil:

All this excitement over a silly little game in which 22 grown men (or less) spend 90 minutes (or more) kicking the shit out of an inflated bladder which can’t even fight back?

The truth, of course, is that like many other sports, futbol teaches valuable life lessons, including some that key members of the Bush administration could use.* Take, for example, the twin notions of accountability and responsibility.

Four weeks ago, I wrote:

I would dearly like to know what it means when you say in America today: “I am responsible, I am accountable”.

In many cultures – British, for example – a leader takes responsibility for a fiasco that happens on his watch by resigning. The term “taking responsibility” is practically synonymous with “resigning”.

Guess what? After England’s quarter-final defeat to Portugal, the captain of the English team, David Beckham, has resigned. (The coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, is leaving too, but he had announced in January that he would leave after the World Cup.)

* Let’s see, just for starters: Rumsfeld certainly, Chertoff certainly, Rove probably.

*** Update at 9 am ***
More evidence in support of my thesis:

The Italian Football Federation’s prosecutor has called for all four clubs at the centre of the match-fixing scandal to be thrown out of Serie A.

Stefano Palazzi called for Juventus to drop two divisions and for AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio to drop one.

He also asked for points penalties to be imposed and that Juve’s 2005 and 2006 titles be stripped from the club.

So futbol also teaches us that when wrong-doing is suspected, you investigate it impartially even if big names are involved (doesn’t get much bigger than Juventus and AC Milan in Italian football, does it, Matt?), and if guilt is established you don’t go all Mickey-Mouse with the punishments.

A fitting analogy from American politics might be Halliburton being fully investigated for contract wrong-doing, and foregoing the entire profts from their Iraq no-bid contracts (if found guilty), and being barred from receiving any federal contracts for the reminder of this Presidency and the next two.