"We think various parties have acted unlawfully and illegally and they need to be called to task.
"A campaign that would allow and condone such offensive and racist behavior must be called to task for their actions," Principal Chief Bill John Baker said in a statement.
He assiduously avoided any statements, any pronouncements he might later be called to task for, he might later have to recant.
"The more difficult thing is to say, 'No these things happen because people did something inappropriate -- something morally wrong, something wrong, period.' And they need to be called to task for that.
He said that the administration was reluctant to release the information on the specific sites because "they know there will be some serious problems with their voters because they will be called to task on this".
But among even the most determined critics on the Council, there appeared room for compromise yesterday, perhaps through public hearings in which the Art Commission would be called to task for its procedures and some of its decisions.
"Each of those individuals, in varying degrees of culpability, will be called to task for their part in the delay in the full thrust of this investigation happening," said Jack Costello, the first deputy commissioner of the Nassau police.
Mr. Hassan said in a complaint issued this week that there was a broader principle at stake, that the government needed to be called to task if it used its control of the news media to spread false information and that it must have some degree of accountability.
Mr. Dowd said that the campaign would move to a more confrontational phase in which Mr. Kerry would probably, in a matter of weeks, be called to task for his voting record, but that the exact timing of that phase had not yet been decided upon.
Those who fail to offer points of view must be called to task, shamed by discretion.
