Ever notice how they only don’t want to play it when they’re the ones to blame?

“We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn’t, in my opinion, constructive,” said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican.

Of course, what he’s referring to is that whole missing billions problem:

Democrats led by Waxman also questioned whether the lack of oversight of $12 billion in Iraqi money that was disbursed by Bremer and the CPA somehow enabled insurgents to get their hands on the funds, possibly through falsifying names on the government payroll.

“I have no knowledge of monies being diverted. I would certainly be concerned if I thought they were,” Bremer said. He pointed out that the problem of fake names on the payroll existed before the U.S.-led invasion.

The special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said in a January 2005 report that $8.8 billion was unaccounted for after being given to the Iraqi ministries.

“We were in the middle of a war, working in very difficult conditions, and we had to move quickly to get this Iraqi money working for the Iraqi people,” Bremer told lawmakers. He said there was no banking system and it would have been impossible to apply modern accounting standards in the midst of a war.

“I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that, with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently,” Bremer said.

I have a few thoughts on where some of the money might have ended up…

Hmmm. It seems to me that if we can “lose” eight and a half billion dollars, then perhaps we could find that kind of money to create a real living wage, with enough left over for some kind of universal health care!

But I guess there’s no profit to be made there.