Democrats Playing It Both Ways With VA Scandal

In a craven bit of election years politics, “Senate Democrats are closing ranks behind Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and President Obama’s decision to keep him in the Cabinet despite Republican calls for his ouster.”

Meanwhile, if you’re a Democrat in the middle of a tough election year, you get to sing a different tune.

 For Democratic Senate candidates hoping to topple Republicans in red states this fall, running against the Obama administration’s deepening Department of Veterans Affairs scandal has become a no-brainer.

By Friday afternoon, three prospective Senate Democrats had called for the ouster of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki over allegations of inordinate wait times for military veterans’ care and misconduct at VA facilities. Those calls set these candidates from the conservative bastions of Georgia, Kentucky and West Virginia apart from the current crop of Democratic senators, none of whom called for the ouster of Shinseki this week despite the firestorm.

With Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House, one might expect they’d be held accountable as a party led by a sitting President. Unfortunately, in a predominately liberal leaning press environment, few outlets seem willing to step up and take them to task for their craven bit of politics dealing with the life and well being of all too many American Veterans.

Durbin said he was satisfied with Shinseki’s responses after meeting with him privately Thursday to discuss reports that a VA facility in Illinois used a secret list to mislead patients about the waiting time for treatment.

But then Durbin isn’t in the middle of a tough election.

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who’s locked into an uphill battle against GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, was the latest Senate candidate to call for Shinseki’s ouster, joining Michelle Nunn of Georgia and Alison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky.