"I'm to blame. I was wrong"

Reading back over Bertie's resignation speech, it's amazing how he still thinks he's done no wrong regarding his bizarre accumulation of personal payments in the 1990s.

It brought to mind a moment in The West Wing when Bartlet explains to his chief of staff Leo McGarry why he's decided to accept Congressional Censure for concealing the truth about his Multiple Sclerosis. In an era where every political leader seems to shirk responsibility and never admit to making mistakes, Bartlet's words are all the more relevant.

Bartlet: "I was wrong. I was. I was just...I was wrong. Come on, you know that. Lots of times we don't know what right or wrong is but lots of times we do and come on, this is one. I may not have had sinister intent at the outset but there were plenty of opportunities for me to make it right. No one in government takes responsibility for anything anymore. We foster, we obfuscate, we rationalize. "Everybody does it." That's what we say. So we come to occupy a moral safe house where everyone's to blame so no one's guilty. I'm to blame. I was wrong."