Our finger-pointing pols

I just saw Sen. Lindsey Graham claim that "the ball was dropped" in the investigation of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev: either the F.B.I. failed to detect signs of his disaffection, or the Bureau wasn't allowed to follow him closely enough. (Here's a HuffPost article on the subject.) There was something in his demeanor that was so insufferably sanctimonious, I almost wanted to punch him. Sen. Graham, what makes you think you know how to do the F.B.I.'s job better than the Bureau does?

Rep. Peter King, R-NY, also flapped his gums on the subject: "If you know a threat is coming from a certain community, you have to go after that." He said he knew of five other cases "where the FBI has failed to stop someone". Really, Rep. King? Wow, the F.B.I. isn't perfect? Huh. Hey, shall we start issuing public statements criticizing your failures, too? I'm sure there are many more than five to which we could point.

It's striking that these lawmakers are so fixated on perfection. It's the same kind of asinine "standard" to which Second Amendment fanatics want to hold any and all measures to reduce gun violence.

Y'know what? Human beings aren't perfect. And if you blowhard politicians want to start pointing fingers, you are just inviting turnabout, which you wouldn't like. You are a lot worse at your jobs than most civil servants, and I'm not sure you're as useful as, let's say, the DMV.

Why are you lawmakers so quick to find fault with everyone else? Why don't you spend more of your time looking at how you and your fellow politicians do your jobs? The jobs that you reelection-obsessed politicians have been doing so spectacularly badly that you couldn't arrive at a deal to avoid sequestration?

Maybe you are so crappy at your jobs, Senator Graham and Rep. King, because you're too goddamned busy criticizing everybody else. Why don't you just shut your pieholes and earn your goddamned salaries by working on legislation?