The Fed should have focused on its job as regulator, rather than punishing everybody with the blunt instrument of interest rates.
As far as commodity prices goes, W loves the weak dollar, he threw his veto pen in Mount Doom, and he used government spending and demand side economics to get the economy going in his first term. He should have encouraged investment and innovation instead.
They should have tightened a year or two sooner, and there was nothing whatever wrong with the top rate reached.
Other than inverting the yield curve which is the best indicator ever for predicting recessions. The best way to tame inflation is with the supply side growth of the economy, not incorrectly blaming economic growth for inflation and then punishing everybody with higher interest rates.