George Epstein

“It was a total oversight and it was stupid”, said Conway state representative Howard “Crow” Dickinson. Crow, the longest serving member of the N.H. House, attempted to pass a carry-on through the metal detector at Manchester Airport only to have a gun found in a zippered compartment. Now you could put together a list of the 100 big issues facing America and New Hampshire, and Crow and I would agree on about four, but you gotta admire the big guy’s sense of responsibility.

He didn’t blame it on the valet’s packing skills, or on “Gestapo” G-man tactics, or even on laws that violate his right to bear arms. He knew he made a serious mistake and he fessed up. Just a couple of weeks earlier, this same Crow Dickinson was quoted as saying, “What we should have done long ago is fully fund the Augenblick formula and had we done that, it’s unlikely we would have had the Claremont lawsuit. Clearly we didn’t understand the issues. We made a mistake.”

Wow. Crow is willing to admit that the whole lunacy of the donor town system, the untold hours cooking up “needy” town formulas, and the millions in legal fees all were a result of the legislature and Governor Merrill making a “mistake”. Crow might not be the best traveling companion, but I will trust his forthrightness over that of any of his colleagues.

Compare the Dickinson mea culpa to our governor. Six months on the job and Craig Benson is already trying to avoid responsibility for legislation. The legislature finally writes the death knell for the donor town system but Benson lets it drift into law without his signature or his veto. The $158 million capital budget bill became law without Benson taking a position.

Benson refused to sign or veto the state’s construction improvement plan for the next two years, including over $100 million in bonding. HB 521 requires those convicted of drunken driving to attend an alcohol treatment program – Benson again out if ink. Then there is the authority of the Pease Development Authority to take over the Port of New Hampshire and the extension of unemployment benefits for long-time, laid-off workers. No signature, no veto, but a full-fledged law. Truman said, “The buck stops here.” Benson’s slogan – “It wasn’t my fault.”

Now let’s compare Crow’s sense of responsibility with our President’s. George W. Bush told a fib in his State of the Union address. So far, he has gotten the CIA Director to say it was his fault, told some White House aide to apologize, and sent Condileeza Rice into hiding – all to avoid responsibility for “sexing” up the weapons of mass destruction argument as the BBC calls it.

"The CIA's failure to watch-list suspected terrorists aggressively reflected a lack of emphasis on a process designed to protect the homeland," says the portion of the Congressional 9/11 report that Bush has permitted to be released. "The FBI was unable to identify and monitor effectively the extent of activity by al-Qaida and other international terrorist groups operating in the United States." The report also tells us that the CIA knew about the al-Qaida connections of two guys named al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi. They actually lived with a longtime FBI informant in San Diego, but the CIA didn’t share their info with the FBI and no one never suspected these two hijackers-to-be until after Sept. 11.

The greatest failure of American intelligence since Pearl Harbor and not one person has been fired – not one person has been disciplined. Most amazing of all, not one person has had the good taste to resign. Picture yourself as the head of the FBI or CIA or NSA or DIA or any of the other alphabets that employ thousands and spend billions each year to keep track of threats to the safety of America and Americans. Now imagine that it is September 12, 2001. Wouldn’t you at least publicly announce that you’re ready to be replaced as soon as the President can find a competent replacement?

Crow Dickinson deserves whatever the law requires for being negligent with a deadly weapon. But Crow also serves as a role model for a whole lot of people in public life who have made mistakes as big or bigger. He is prepared to look us in the eye and take his medicine – others should do the same.

George Epstein, chairman of The Echo Group, lives in Madison and can be reached at gepstein@Echoman.com.