Others are seen as less worthwhile making the blamer "perfect".

The end result is that the blamer feels superior.

Psychologists and medical ethicists say the need to find fault reveals more about the blamer than the person being blamed.

Hiring Mr. Blamer, particularly on the second time around, is something of a coup.

As Judy had said, Richard was a blamer.

Gopu, a blamer, blames his brother for spoiling Tim.

However, any habitual blamer also incurs an obligation to give praise where praise is due.

"Please understand that if we are to do anything of this sort it will be a merger of equals," Mr. Blamer wrote.

One is Steven Blamer, who will become president for New York at Grey Worldwide.

She declined to discuss who might be named to succeed Mr. Blamer at Grey Worldwide.

Mr. Blamer agreed.

The selection was surprising, not only because there had been no inkling that Mr. Blamer and Interpublic were talking again.

"I've watched a president who's become the great divider, the great complainer, the great excuse-giver, the great blamer."

Steven Blamer, president and chief executive of Foote Cone, will now also oversee North American operations.

Mr. Blamer, 41, will succeed Nigel Sharrocks, who left Grey in September.

Indeed, there is already one high-level casualty: Steven Blamer, chief executive of Foote Cone, who said he would leave after a transition period.

Mr. Blamer rose to managing director in Los Angeles before being transferred to lead the London office in 1998, where he remained until 2000.

In Los Angeles, Jeff Alperin, 44, president of the office, will assume Mr. Blamer's responsibilities.

The grim Sylvia, mother of Alex and Monica, is a chronic alarmist, a blamer (of everyone, for everything) and an all-purpose doomsayer.

Jan Sneed, a spokeswoman for Grey Global, said late yesterday: "Steve Blamer is leaving for a job of a significantly different nature.

But Mr. Blamer decided to stay at Grey Worldwide and Mr. Heekin stayed away.

Mr. Blamer, in his staff memo, reacted strongly to a suggestion in the adweek.com report that Foote Cone would be taken over by Draft.

Joe Keller is a master blamer who avoided accountability for shipping cracked cylinder heads that caused the deaths of 21 pilots during World War II.

Steve Blamer, executive vice president and managing director in Los Angeles, will become managing director and chief executive in London.

Mr. Blamer, who has served as chief executive of Foote Cone for a year, will leave after working with Mr. Draft on the transition.