Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press” Jim Miklaszewski said while he was a great general, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is not the type of leader for this situation and he needs to step down in light of his handling of the VA Hospital waiting list scandal…
Partial transcript as follows:
GREGORY: Jim, you’ve been covering government for a long time, from the White House to the Pentagon, all over town. I spoke to somebody very high up in the administration who says, “You know what? This is a tech problem. This is a technology problem. Shinseki’s a good guy, just like HHS Kathleen Sebelius, very competent, but the departments are too technologically challenged to keep up with the demand that they’re trying to place on him.”
MIKLASZEWSKI: That’s right. First of all, I agree with the congressman. You know, Secretary Shinseki was a great general. He served the military well. But quite frankly, instead of Shinseki, what the VA and the veterans need right is a General George Patton, somebody who’s going to be aggressive and fight politically.
GREGORY: Right.
MIKLASZEWSKI: And Shinseki’s–
GREGORY: And what came through from your reporting this week, this is not somebody who necessarily commands the stage to say, “We’re going to get thing– we’re going to change things.”
MIKLASZEWSKI: And that’s been his MO–
GREGORY: Right.
MIKLASZEWSKI: –throughout his entire career. But very quickly, back to the problem itself. First of all, you have the most entrenched bureaucracy in Washington. You have a VA that is overwhelmed and under-resourced. And I don’t care what people say, Shinseki or not, there’s just not enough money right now in the federal government to fix it. Other changes have to be made.
(h/t RNC Research)
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