Embattled Democrats are starting to crack under the strain:
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s support on Capitol Hill crumbled on Wednesday as members of his own party deserted him in the aftermath of a highly critical inspector general report that found “systemic” problems at VA medical facilities.
Within just hours of the report’s release, the number of Democrats calling for Shinseki’s resignation more than doubled. By Wednesday evening, more than a dozen congressional Democrats publicly called for his ouster, joining a growing number of influential Republicans.
…turns out that your average at-risk Democratic Senator really does have a limit to how much water he’ll carry for President Barack Obama, and this load was just one jerry-can of Presidential* incompetence too many. Not that it’ll save any of said Senators, but it’s a better alternative than continuing to go down with the ship. At any rate, the next two days should be interesting…
Moe Lane
PS: Eric Shinseki may or may not take responsibility for this disaster, but one thing is for certain: Barack Obama certainly will not. Because responsibility in this administration is something that’s taken by other people. Dear God, but I almost feel sorry for Democratic partisans on this one: it’s like the President had decided to drop trousers on national TV and then dance the mazurka. How do you work around that? Can you work around it? – Because there are some things that just can’t be spun.
*In Grown-up Person Land, we expect people who successfully campaign on the promise to fix a problem to not instead make the problem worse via fumble-fingered oversight and rank dereliction of duty.
Let us say that eventually Shinseki is forced to resign. Normal “resignation” in this regime is an early retirement with enhanced benefits.
But let’s say it happens. At that point, it is all old news. Veterans will still be being murdered and beaten by the VA. But it will be old news. It will get no coverage in the State-controlled media. Surely the Institutional Republicans will not do any follow up. They will try to take credit for Shinseki’s retirement like they were fighting for our veterans. But they will do nothing to stop the deliberate denials of treatment and fraudulent documentation.
“…turns out that your average at-risk Democratic Senator really does have a limit to how much water he’ll carry for President Barack Obama”
.
Still no limit for the WH press corps.
The Federal Government does not operate in “grown-up person land”. That’s why Leftists are attracted to employment in it.
I wish I had your optimism, Moe.
My father was a 30-year Navy veteran from WW2. He was a casualty of the incompetent and worthless VA system 31 years ago, at the age of 68. If anything, their treatment of our fighting men has worsened by a factor of 10 at least since then, but it still keeps cranking along with bottom-of-the-barrel health “care” for the people who deserve the best.
I know. As a now-retired RN, I saw what they did to my dad back then, but was pretty much helpless to do anything about it. Some of the healthcare staff that work at the VA may not like what is happening, but their hands are tied by bureaucracy, and the administrators couldn’t care less — and a lot of the staff don’t really care, either. My conversations with some of the nurses all those years ago told me that, then, and I doubt much has changed for the better. The system itself is the problem, and no one is going to fix it because of government’s love of huge, cumbersome, top-down organizations under its command. A big part of the problem is love of power, and it isn’t going away.
So Shinseki may stay or Shinseki may go, but until the whole system is scrapped and rebuilt in a way that gives the veterans choices, there will be no real reform. If anything, Shinseki’s departure will probably give them an excuse to sit back with a sigh of relief and proceed to ignore the real problems. In fact, I’d bet on it.
Q1: What’s the over/under on when Shinseki resigns?
Q2: Regardless of the answer to Q1, how can I get a bet down on the over?