Politics & Power Quote by David Kay

Kay’s sentence is a masterclass in Washington-style calibration: praise up front, responsibility pushed outward, and accountability kept just out of frame. “A level of maturity and understanding” isn’t simply a compliment; it’s a cue to behave like grown-ups in a room where incentives often reward theater. He’s signaling that the people he’s addressing have a chance to rise above partisanship, and he’s gently warning that failing to do so will look childish.

The repetition of “I think” does important work. It softens the claim, making it harder to quote as an accusation, while still laying down a judgment. That hedging fits a scientist operating in political terrain: Kay is careful with certainty because certainty is exactly what’s on trial.

Then comes the real pivot: “bodes well for getting to the bottom of this.” The phrase implies there is a bottom - a factual endpoint - but also that it hasn’t been reached, and maybe hasn’t even been seriously pursued. It’s optimism with an edge.

The closing clause is the tell. “It is really up to you and your staff…on behalf of the American people” sounds deferential, even civic-minded, but it’s also an elegant handoff. Kay positions himself as the expert witness who can inform, not the official who must own the outcome. In context (Kay’s post-Iraq WMD reckoning), that’s strategic: he’s acknowledging institutional failure without volunteering to be its scapegoat, while challenging Congress (or oversight bodies) to do the uncomfortable work of finding out how the story got sold.