Titanic leadership metaphor

If you have to do it, you might as well do it right.

Example

Imagine George W. Bush as captain of the Titanic, frantically pointing at the iceberg and saying that the iceberg represents a tremendous shipwide threat and he therefore needs emergency powers in order to deal with it. The crew agrees, and he promptly steers the ship closer to the iceberg. The crew start to protest about this, and he responds by announcing to everyone on board that we shouldn't listen to those calling for a different course to be set, because dissent weakens us and disrupts our resolve to work together in this time of terrible crisis.

Yes, indeed, the iceberg is a threat -- but it's one we have the knowledge to deal with, and he's doing his best to prevent that knowledge and competence from being brought to bear.