Posted on 05/18/2014 2:45:50 PM PDT by smoothsailing
May 18, 2014
by Rick Moran
Of all the self-serving tripe…
Guess what. The president of the United States is “madder than hell” about the Veterans Administration scandal. That’s the word from White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.
Funny…VA Secretary Eric Shineski said almost the exact same thing last week when testifying before Congress when he said, “Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell.”
I suppose they could have channeled Howard Beale completely and added, “And I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Perfect — the administration taking its defense cues from a fictional nutcase TV anchor. Except this administration has an abundance of patience and forbearance when it comes to the incompetence and stupidity of its members — president included. So you have to wonder where their breaking point truly is.
President Barack Obama is “madder than hell” about the Veterans Affairs scandal, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough says.
“The president is madder than hell, and I’ve got the scars to prove it, given the briefings I’ve given the president,” he said in an interview with CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
“Nobody is more outraged about this problem, right now, Major, than the president of the United States,” McDonough added.
McDonough’s comments echoed VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s statement at last week’s Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, when the secretary said he was “mad as hell” about the reports.
Shinseki and the Obama administration have come under fire for reports that at least 40 veterans died while waiting for care in the Phoenix VA system. Several lawmakers, as well as The American Legion, a top veterans’ advocacy group, have called on Shinseki to resign.
Asked about the secretary’s performance at the Senate hearing last week, McDonough said: “We don’t score testimony on Capitol Hill or otherwise. What we score is results that results to the services and benefits that our vets have earned.”
Undersecretary of Health Robert Petzel, who testified with Shinseki at the hearing, stepped down on Friday.
McDonough, as he has in earlier interviews, touted the administration’s commitment to veterans and its “historic increase” in benefits for veterans.
“The president’s demanding that we get to the bottom of the exact allegations that you’re talking about as it relates to whether veterans are getting the timely access to care that they have earned,” McDonough said, adding that as soon as the reports came out, he reached out to Shinseki to ensure the department had accountability measures in place to handle the problem.
“Nobody is more outraged about the problem…” than Obama? Oh really? The president is more outraged than the families of the 100 vets who died waiting for treatment because the VA was trying to cover up its mismanagement?
I’m sure the loved ones of the dead appreciate the president’s anger. Too bad Obama couldn’t get worked up about the unacceptable care at VA hospitals prior to it becoming a scandal.
More than Benghazi or even the IRS scandals, this has the potential to seriously damage the president and his administration. The VA’s actions have angered both Democrats and Republicans, so the administration can’t claim it’s a partisan witch hunt. There are also documents that prove the coverup, willing witnesses who are eager to tell their story, and the politically explosive charge that the Commander in Chief doesn’t care about those who served.
No way the press can bury this scandal or turn it into a partisan circus. For the first time in his presidency, Obama faces a scandal without his party to back him up or the press to run interference for him.
It’s going to be a long summer for Obama.
Obama was so mad that he didn’t play his usual golf game at Andrews AFB or Ft. Belvoir. Instead he went off to golf his ball at the tony Robert Trent Jones course at Mannassas.
What Obozo is mad about is that the story got out in the first place!
LOL, even mac daddy does not believe the lying words that come out of his mouth.
Bogie’s post got me interested so I started doing some looking.
Here’s a link that goes in to detail about the history of what caused the veterans to be in the Florida Keys.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Neill/steven113.htm
Roosevelt used them to get elected, then cast them aside. He could have cared less what happened to them once they were out of the way, down south in Florida swamps where they couldn’t embarass him and his “New Deal”. Democrats, the media and academia all worshipped FDR before there was an Obama to swoon over.
It’s sickening.
Poetic justice. Sure he is mad. He is taking the hit for a problem that has been out there for years. VA has been rotten and dysfunctional for years. But I do not doubt at all that it got worse under his “leadership”. But this couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Somehow Hemingway got on the FBI watch list.
I agree with your assessment of FDR, it is sickening.
It also seems MacArthur had little use for taking orders. If ignoring orders just once as in Washington DC a case could possibly be made that it was a misunderstanding but his ignoring of orders in Korea would shoot that possibility down in flames, MacArthur got what he deserved from Harry Truman.
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