VA Secretary Resigns: Let's Play "So You Think You Can Be A Cabinet Member?"

VA Secretary Resigns: Let's Play "So You Think You Can Be A Cabinet Member?"
Paul Rieckhoff
Posted July 17, 2007 | 10:15 PM (EST)


With all the evidence of incompetence from the current Administration, have you ever thought: "My six year old could do a better job"? Well, round up the kids, because it's time for a game of "So You Think You Can Be a Cabinet Member?"

Question One:
You are Secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, and because of all the vets returning home from Iraq, you are facing a $3 billion dollar budget shortfall. You respond by...

~snip~

Question Two:
If almost one-third of Vet Centers said they needed more staff, and a VA Deputy Undersecretary had admitted that mental health and substance abuse care was "virtually inaccessible," you'd say that the VA...

~snip~

If you answered "a" to these questions, there's an opening now at the Department of Veterans Affairs that you might be qualified for! Because when VA Secretary Jim Nicholson was faced with each of these questions, he got it wrong every time. And wounded vets from Iraq and Afghanistan paid the price.

Now, finally, after years of errors and missteps, Secretary Nicholson has finally resigned. This should be welcome news for all veterans. Nicholson has been incompetent and dangerously out of touch throughout his time as VA chief (watch this video of his terrible performance on PBS after the groundbreaking piece by ABC's Bob Woodruff put him under fire earlier this year). As I have said repeatedly over the past couple months, he's like the FEMA Director Michael Brown that America didn't know about. (For complete information on the Secretary Nicholson's record at the VA, check out IAVA's fact sheet.)


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So, with only 17 months left to Bush's 2nd term, he wants out, so someone else can be named to the position to share blame with him.

It's much easier for them to point to each other as the one responsible for the problems that way, instead of staying on the job, doing something about it, and accepting full responsibility for the poor job that he did.
But, then, that's not the way this neocon shell game is played.
Just like replacing the Generals in Iraq who are blamed by Bush for not "winning the war" in Iraq, he simply appoints a new figurehead to carry out his plan - stay the course.

We're spending nearly 12 billion a month in Iraq now.
Yet, the Republican neocons and the chickenhawks won't spend 5 billion a year on the vets who fought in that war.

When the next Democratic President gets into office and asks for more money for veterans, listen to how loud the Republican neocons and the chickenhawks who supported Bush's war, scream about keeping our federal budget deficit low.
They will accuse the Democrats of "busting the budget" when they pass legislation to increase veteran's aid in 2009.

I hope all of the Republican neocons and all of the chickenhawks who supported Bush's war rot in hell for turning their backs on the veterans who fought in this war that they supported for so long.

He was about as good as Browny and the surgeon general yes men.
Question is who is next? Hope the senate is tougher on the new nominee than they have been in the past.