Jonah was among the first to say it yesterday: Fire Janet Napolitano. Now the Washington Examiner agrees.

I’m one of those folks who have long pooh-poohed the idea that George Tenet should have been fired as CIA director on September 12, 2001. While that might have felt cathartic, all it would have done is remove the boss at an absolutely crucial time, and put in a new boss who had to hit the ground running, while CIA personnel who needed to be focused on finding the bad guys worried about who would be the next scapegoat.

I opposed firing Tenet because I didn’t see how firing him would improve the performance of the agency he headed; I figured it would be, at least in the short-term, counterproductive.

With Napolitano, I’m not sure how counterproductive her dismissal would be; I’m left wondering if any experienced administrator would do much worse. At least we could be spared the inane, “my words were taken out of context” spin when her initial, repeated statement that “the system worked” generates incredulous outrage.