“We do have an independent train system … [but] let’s not try and disperse the blame. Let’s put it on the decision makers and the leaders,”

Fenty said that while replacing or retrofitting the cars “to make them more crash resistant” would have been expensive, “lives are more important than finances.”

Mayor Fenty on “Good Morning America”

Congratulations Mr. Mayor! You said the right thing.  Now do something about it.

“Taken together, experts say these facts point to several possible scenarios: The operator activated the brakes too late; the computers that are supposed to stop a train from getting too close to another train faltered; the train’s brakes failed; or some combination of those. Some passengers on the striking train have said that they never felt the train slow down.”

WaPo reporters Lena H. Sun and Lyndsey Layton

Translation:  Nobody knows what the eff happened yet.  Thanks for nothing, ladies.  Call me back when you have something factual to report.

“I truly believe Metro is a safe system”

Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr

Try telling that to the 9 people who are dead because of the politcal rangling and general incompetence of Metro, Mr. Catoe.  Or better yet, tell that to their families.

“[Metro is] aggressively seeking to replace the 1000-series rail cars.”

Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham on Tuesday

Too little too late, Jimbo.  Perhaps our definition of “aggressive” is different. If by “aggressive” you mean sitting on your ass in no particular hurry, I think I see the problem.

“To keep our customers informed we issued seven press releases [Monday] and one [Tuesday], which went out to more than 2,400 subscribers. The releases were also posted to the Web site, which was viewed yesterday more than 1 million times.”

Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein

Try to follow my drift here, Lisa.  It’s not the amount of notices that were the problem.  It’s the wording of those notices.  You and/or your office screwed the pooch.  Own it, Candy Pants.  No amount of linguistic foreplay is going to change that.

“…the NTSB can only recommend changes. It can’t force Metro to phase out cars. It’s really up to other folks to implement our recommendations”

NTSB member Debbie Hersman

That pretty much says it all.