Shinseki was a scapegoat..

[kentuck]

He simply became too much of a political liability and the WH cut him loose.

The VA is one huge complex bureaucracy. No one person can possibly know everything that is going on in every state and every hospital, etc. Shinseki had done a lot of good things with getting more vets covered and getting help for homeless veterans. Since the President cannot fire himself, Shinseki was the next in line for the ax, when the politicians started yelling for blood.

But the truth of the matter is that the VA has had problems for decades. It's difficult to get the doctors needed to take care of the huge influx of veterans into the system. Not only do we now have an aging population with the Vietnam veterans, but we have veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan that have been fighting for over a dozen years and many are physically and psychologically wounded. Ironically, it was Shinseki that had told Bush and Rumsfeld that they would need 100K soldiers to go into Iraq.

We should not overlook the fact that there were 27 new VA facilities that were ready to go on line and help the veterans but the Congress voted against it back in February. We couldn't afford it, they said. Now they want to point the finger of blame at Shinseki or Obama when the reality is that they are all to blame for this mess.

Now that they have their pound of flesh and Shinseki is gone, they should try to fix the problem. It is not enough to try and make political hay out of it. Our veterans deserve more. They deserve the Democrats and Republicans working together to make it better for our veterans. If they cannot do that, then the voters should hold them accountable in the next election.

[pscot]

1. True, but irrelevant

It's an election year. If Shinseki had fallen on his sword 10 days ago, Democrats would have been grateful. As it is, everyone's pissed at him.

[tularetom]

5. Speak for yourself

I'm not pissed at him.

I reserve that for the president and the cowardly Senate Democrats who panicked when they read the slanted coverage of the VA's problems in the worthless beltway press, thinking their own phony baloney jobs might be in jeopardy.

The only reason any Democrat would have been "grateful" for him to resign 10 days ago was that it would have taken the heat off them. Democrats like that, we don't need. Of course it's an election year but there is still a place for courage among our "leaders".

I hope Shinseki can find room under Obama's bus. It's getting pretty crowded under there with Shirley Sherrod, Van Jones and Kathleen Sibelius. All sacrificed to fake republican outrage spread everywhere by our liberal media.

[pscot]

6. I should have said. 'everyone inside the beltway'

Shinseki is a decent guy. The situation just seemed to get away from him.

[barbtries]

8. i'm not

i thought he should have ridden it out. democrats never do.

[Fred Sanders]

2. Media headhunting is what caused this, the only solution the Republicans offer, deflecting

from their blocking actual laws in February in the Senate that would have actually offered solutions, is a law......to permit more easily headhunting?

And the media just waltzes by the hypocrisy and deflections?

[TexasProgresive]

3. Of course he is

This is one of the pukes' strategies- underfund and do whatever is necessary to undermine programs like the VA, the education system and so on and when they get in trouble say, "Lookie here at this guvment waste. Let's get rid of it or better yet, privatize it because I can make lot's of dough."

[kmlisle]

9. Exactly! As a public school teacher I recognize the strategy.

[bvar22]

4. Gotta pick someone to play Judas in the Kabiki Theater.

He was an easy target for this one,
and like a good soldier, accepted his mission.

[GeorgeGist]

13. Chess

[MerryBlooms]

7. "The Buck Stops Here"

If the people who are in charge aren't responsible for both good and bad, who is?

Shinseki is a good and honorable man, and maybe he saw the need for change and resigned... could that be possible?

I don't know where/why there's a failure in the VA, but it's clear there is one. Our soldiers deserve better, and I don't think there's any argument to be found there.

Good OP.

[merrily]

11. He's a soldier. He stayed at his post. That's what he said he would do.

I think Obama asked him to resign and the media seems to think so as well. But, I think it pained both of them.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

10. There's an old expression in baseball - you don't fire the team, you fire the manager

No matter how bad the players are, the manager is the one who goes after the team goes 60-82.

That's what happened here. Nothing more, nothing less.

Meanwhile, I applaud Bernie Sanders efforts to take the VA funding bill and force the GOP to pass it or stick it straight up their......

[UTUSN]

12. Agreed, but he was not the political liability, he was the scapegoat for the political liability.

The VA has been its bad self all its existence. The problem is the military mindset, the suck-it-up/man-up vet employees on vet abuse. For corruption in the military, see Sgt BILKO and Catch 22. When my ship was docked in Saigon, our cooks were selling fried chicken at a dollar a piece to a line of Army dudes on the pier.