Secretary Napolitano reassures the nation.

Does the administration honestly not get how the language they choose to use comes across to people? Didn't we go through all this with the Christmas Day bomber? I think we did...

The President "has tasked the Department of Energy to participate in providing any possible expertise on that front.” And that's a spoken, not a written quote? Hello... ?

Despite the admissions of inadequacy -- maybe they did learn something; no Napolitano claim here that "the system worked" -- and the apparent obliviousness that good risk management plans out worse-case scenarios before things are blowing up on ya, I'm not sure what this ... dialoguing actually contributed today.

During the hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the administration’s actions after the explosion, saying that officials had engaged in an “all-hands-on-deck response to this event.”

“We planned for a worst-case scenario from the moment the explosion occurred, and now, almost four weeks later, we are continuing to sustain a strong and effective response,” she said.

I'd hate to see how they define weak and ineffective...

Ms. Napolitano acknowledged, however, that the government was largely at BP’s mercy in stopping the leak and addressing much of the oil in the water.

“Frankly,” she said, “the federal government has limited capability and expertise in responding to wellhead incidents on the sea floor. Nonetheless, the federal government has mobilized scientists and industry experts to collaborate with BP to identify and execute the best strategies for sealing the well, and the president has tasked the Department of Energy to participate in providing any possible expertise on that front.”
...
“We will not rest until BP permanently seals the wellhead, the spill is cleaned up, and the communities and natural resources of the Gulf Coast are restored and made whole," Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Salazar said in a joint statement on Sunday.

See, words matter. "We will not rest..."

Oh sure you will. Fundraising dinners will happen; celebratory political events will occur.

This thing is going to take years and years to "fix" "make whole", so pretty words -- like campaign promises -- ultimately have little stand-alone worth.

Get it?