Especially the kind of politics we re seeing now
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This is what they mean when the say its a contact sport. Morally and/or logically, he may have been the right guy for the job. But that is only a maybe. Politically, this wasnāt a fight worth having for the WH. It would cost a great deal of political capital, tank Obamaās ratings for a few months, and give republicans a battleground where we are defendingā¦letting veterans die.
People can parse it however they like, but at the end of the day, the American people will lock into āletting veterans dieāā¦and that is NOT a news story you want running over the summer (4th of July, anyone? want to guess how that story gets played then?)
Shinseki really didnāt do himself any favors during the hearings either. He didnāt come across as a man with a planā¦he came across as a guy saying, āwhat problem? I was told everything is great!ā Rightly or wrongly, it all just adds up to his resignation.
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Hope they will look at the funding that the repubs have been cutting from the agency.What did they expect ?
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What would be real interesting is if he nominated a former Command Sergeant Major instead of yet another General.
Yes, anybody with common sense knows there is an egregious political double standard. But a whole lot of people have no sense and the rest donāt know what a double standard is.
I donāt know if the electorateās partisan bias and ignorance would be lessened if Dems stood their ground against it. I suspect recent history shows otherwise.
That seems to force Dems to react to public perception rather than presenting alternative responsesā¦and Gd forbid, solutions.
Fair points.
Personally, I think it has to be a relief. The place is so screwed up by decades of underfunding and having a patchwork IT system that I think Iād rather be HHS than VA sec at this point.
Iām a VA consumer, and I would have backed Shinseki to the end, but Iām happy for the guy.