You may call it a "flying wedge...aimed at Bush's throat", but reasonable people consider it perfectly proper to hold the President responsible for the performance of the Executive branch of government.

Authority can be delegated, but not responsibility. Why that's so is pefectly obvious: The person doing the delegating chooses when, to whom, and what to delegate. Bad choices in delegation are solely the responsible of the delegator.

Bush chose Chertoff and Brown, and will always be responsible for their failures as well as their successes. Brown was an appallingly bad choice, and your attempt elsewhere to blame Democrats in Congress for that was ludicrous. You're basically blaming Congress for trusting Bush; not much of a defense of Bush, is it?

Chertoff and Brown were appointed, and thus are not answerable to the people. If we can't hold Bush responsible for the quality of his appointees, then the whole idea of government accountability becomes a farce. Harry Truman understood that perfectly.