Pin the blame on the donkey

A person was placed on a committee to examine and correct a problem for a project his company is working on. He thinks the committee won’t be able to solve the problem and the company is looking to be able to deflect blame from the people who caused the problem in the first place. The malaphor was uttered in that conversation.

This is a mashup of “pin the tail on the donkey” (idiomatically used to describe a chaotic or blind process where the target is unknown) and “pin the blame on (someone)” (assign responsibility for a mistake, often unfairly). Could it also be a common Republican tactic? Given the midterm election results, it could describe what the voters were thinking (donkey = ass). Props once again to Verbatim, a frequent Malaphor contributor. Thanks Verbatim!