CHICAGO — I want to make sure that I quote Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo accurately here.

"We have to get that position right," he said recently, referring to the quarterback spot.

Note the phrasing. If you're looking for tearful accountability in that sentence, you better reserve a large block of time for the search. It sounds more like an observation than an admission of guilt. It's as if the Bears' quarterback problems had cropped up unexpectedly. You could just as easily imagine Angelo saying, "We have to get that clogged toilet right."

This discussion isn't about Kyle Orton, on whom Angelo isn't completely sold as the Bears' starter.

It's about the Bears and Kurt Warner, who will be the starting quarterback for the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. After the Giants said goodbye to him following the 2004 season, Warner took a tour of Halas Hall and Angelo & Co. told him they would like to sign him, but only as a backup. Why?

I think you Bears fans know the answer.

Because Rex was our quarterback.

I'll go along with the premise that the Bears have to get the quarterback position "right," as long as someone, anyone in the organization acknowledges they're responsible for making it so wrong.

I'm not positive Orton is the quarterback of the future, but he needs time to prove he can be. After eight seasons of giving us the likes of Chad Hutchinson, Craig Krenzel, Jonathan Quinn, Kordell Stewart and Henry Burris — not to mention Rex Grossman — Angelo has picked an odd time to decide that the position needs stabilizing. Especially when he had a chance at Warner in 2005.

The bad judgment didn't come in taking a pass on Warner, as lots of teams did that year. The bad judgment came in having an interest in Warner but telling him he wouldn't have a chance to be a starter.

"I was just looking for that one team that thought Kurt Warner can still lead," he said.

This will be Warner's third Super Bowl. He's a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player, as well as a Super Bowl MVP, all when he was with the Rams. Why would anyone think a guy like that still could lead?

Since joining the Cardinals, his completion percentage has not dropped below 62.3 in any season and his passer rating has not dropped below 85.8. Neither Orton nor Grossman has come close to those numbers.

This year, at 37, Warner had 30 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions.

Remember how the Bears decided on Angelo as their general manager in 2001? They hired a consulting firm to find the right person to run the football side of the organization. It seemed strange at the time—a football team hiring a company to tell it how to run a football team. OK, it still seems strange. The search firm came up with Angelo, who was no secret, seeing as how he was working for Tampa Bay, a team then in the Bears' division.

I bring this up because the time has arrived for the Bears to hire a quarterback-acquisition consultant to help them find QBs in the draft or in the free-agent market. And if there is no such animal as a quarterback-acquisition consultant, someone should put up a shingle. Angelo needs one the way Lindsay Lohan needs a life coach.

What are the chances of getting something right if you can't begin to figure out what's wrong? Back to the toilet imagery: Don't you call a plumber when it's broken?

Warner is looking pretty good for a washed-up quarterback. Knowledge and experience apparently matter. There's nothing the man hasn't seen on the football field. In the NFC championship game against Philadelphia, he completed 21 of 28 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns. Not bad for a quarterback who went undrafted out of college and played three seasons in the Arena Football League.

Angelo says a team first has to stabilize the quarterback position and then everything else will follow. Yes, but it helps to have three 1,000-yard receivers. You think Orton could be pretty good if he had Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston as his receivers? Yeah, me too.

Hmmmm. The Bears might want to hire a consultant to help them choose quarterbacks and receivers.

Oh, and that Donovan McNabb guy — he's not too bad either. Somebody better apprise Angelo of it before he pronounces the 32-year-old Eagles quarterback over the hill.

Quick — is there a consultant in the house?