Ed Kyle wrote:
How does that differ from taking responsibility for
pressing earlier into service a brand new human
spacecraft, complete with all of its bugs? Remember
AS-204, Soyuz 1, etc?

Well, I don't think Congress will do either (most likely the shuttle
will stop flying in 2010 and CEV will never happen), but if they did
decide to bring CEV forward and gave NASA the money to do so, they
could blame NASA if they lost one. If they ignored Bush and told NASA
to keep the shuttle flying after 2010, they'd be the ones blamed,
instead... after all, having lost two, 'everyone' knows the shuttle is
a death-trap now.

Mark