Too Little, Too Late? Democrats Left Scrambling On VA Scandal

As Roll Call points out, the Democrat’s problem with the Veterans Affairs’ scandal isn’t only what it says about the VA, it’s what it says about the ‘big government’ mentality that’s so central to many Democrat policies and ideas.

It lso tightens their connection to Obama, at a time when his popularity is in the tank and vulnerable Democrats everywhere are scrambling to avoid him.

… the VA scandal offers a striking example of federal government mismanagement with a Democrat at the helm and provides another link between Democratic incumbents and President Barack Obama.

“Democratic candidates in most of the competitive states already have the millstone of President Obama’s unpopularity around their necks, and the VA scandal is only making that weight heavier,” said GOP pollster Dan Judy.

In the House, Florida Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia, a top GOP target, announced he had held a “closed door meeting” with Paul M. Russo, director of the Miami VA Healthcare System. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, who is running for Senate, introduced a bill to provide college-loan repayments for health care providers willing to work in VA facilities — a push covered in June by the Des Moines Register and at least two local television news stations.

Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., who’s been criticized by her GOP opponent, invited acting VA Secretary Sloan D. Gibson to the Fayetteville VA Medical Center — which an internal audit found to have some of the longest wait times. They met again on June 25 on Capitol Hill with other Democratic senators, including Mark Begich of Alaska.

While it’s clearly true that Democrats are now doing everything and anything they can to take up the banner of fixing the VA, their having to do that also serves to point out how badly they have dropped the ball on veterans’ behalf while a Democrat has sat in the White House going on six years now. Well, to be fair, he only sits in the White House on those rare occasions when he’s not golfing, it seems.

Perhaps nowhere has the issue’s potential potency been more obvious than in the Last Frontier State, where Begich has been accused of ignoring the issue by his leading Republican opponent — veteran Dan Sullivan. Begich was recently hit with two TV ads from American Crossroads and its non-profit arm, Crossroads GPS.

“Sen. Begich is on the Veterans Affairs Committee, and he’s not looking out for us,” a veteran says in an ad backed by a $450,000 buy.