Gen. Shinseki: this Marine bids you fair winds and following seas.

[Recursion]

You, sir, have always come in after the problem was created and done your best to solve it.

General Eric Shinseki: the dysfunction of the VA was not your fault, but like a real officer you took responsibility. Thank you, sir, for your service, and as a veteran I hope your replacement has 1/10th of the balls or ovaries you do.

Thank you for your service, sir

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Seconded.

If the Dems had any brains or courage at all, they would keep laying this mess at the feet of the Republicans, where it belongs.

The whole scandal had its roots in their budget cuts to the VA. The VA set up perverse incentives that rewarded cheating, but the motive to do so arose out of the Republicans' chronic financial disregard for the veterans.

[Recursion]

2. Bingo

I came to capital hill in the 1990's as a flunky for Sonny Montgomery.

I keep asking my fellow Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter): "If Sonny Montgomery were alive, would you have dared to cut X funding?" The answer is of course always no.

[Nye Bevan]

3. Not his fault?

Shouldn't he have taken a closer interest in whether or not veterans were getting the health care they deserve?

[Savannahmann]

4. You would think that sometime in the five years he held the position

He might have noticed that the Scheduling bonus checks were fraudulently awarded.

[Dreamer Tatum]

5. This attitude is why there's a problem in the first place

The guy did fuck-all to manage the agency. Period.

Why people hold politics over simple management is beyond me.

[babylonsister]

9. Why don't you do a little

research first instead of proving your ignorance in writing?

From two years ago:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/11/eric-shinseki-veterans-affairs_n_2110080.html
Eric Shinseki, VA Chief, Charts Solid Gains For Veterans

[MohRokTah]

6. DU Rec and a kick. eom

[LexVegas]

7. May not have caused it...but didn't do anything to fix it.

Just like a real officer.

[TxGrandpa]

8. This retired Army Sergeant seconds your post!!! n/t

[denbot]

10. Kick from ex-Navy current VA medical user

Bravo Zulu sir.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Indeed...

and this is the second time he's been railroaded by the RW assholes. Remember, he was the one who was right about Iraq, when he said they were going in understrength for the mission and the occupation.

[Hekate]

12. He's a good man brought down in a witch-hunt. They'll go after the CIC now.

The GOP gets another head on a pike -- aided and abetted by amnesiacs and cowards.

Thank you for your service, Sir.

[ewagner]

13. Let me get this straight...

Gen Shinseki stepped into a mess that was created before he got there...

Republicans repeatedly ignored his requests for funds to fix the problem.

and

When the problem becomes critical and becomes public..

The good General takes the fall for it....

nice....real nice ...sarcasm intended

[SomeGuyInEagan]

17. Seems to be a pattern to this ...

Just sayin'.

[glinda]

14. Kick

[jtuck004]

15. Too bad you weren't a thieving bankster instead of an honorable veteran.

You would still be employed, and when you leave you would have stepped into big money with a hearty pat on the back instead of being blamed for problems you didn't create.

Thank you for your service, sir.

[haele]

16. Like many COs, you expected people to do their jobs.

While it wasn't your fault you were dealing with career slackers who peter-principled their way up the ladder and hid behind decades of falsified reporting and dog and pony shows, you took responsibility when their incompetency finally was exposed.
Like all good COs do; it doesn't matter if you didn't mess up, it doesn't matter if you were lied to or were hamstrung by funding cuts or frustrated by continually finding yet another crisis that had developed over decades of being swept under the rug instead of being dealt with back in the 1990's or 2000's, you were the leader and you took responsibility.

Thank you at least for implementing and proceeding with the digitization of records and for doing whatever you could to streamline and modernize the VA. I and my spouse are now able to easily access our VA records, and I have no fear that my disabled spouse should be able to deal with VA issues and benefits should I pass anytime soon.
I know this from experience; my mother and my MIL have recently benefited from the work you have been doing over the past five years, the ease of dealing with the VA after their respective military retiree spouses was significantly better than what had been experienced by surviving spouses in the past.

Fair winds and following seas. I hope the person who replaces you will be half as dedicated as you were and can live up to your example, and help shepard the VA through the mass influx of returning vets and the incorporation of modern technology to make the system far more efficient than it has ever been.

Haele

[VA_Jill]

18. Unfortunately

the problem was here before you were, sir, and will be here long after you are gone, because it is always easier for our posturing congresscritters to lop off the head than to go after the real problem, which is twofold…..first, the mid-level bureaucrats who like the system just the way it is and whose jobs are secure because they basically CAN'T be died (civil service) and have done every possible thing they can to gum up the works, and second, the competing (and incompetent) IT contractors who have set up systems that make it impossible to transfer records because their systems refuse to "talk" to one another. Get rid of those, and the system will run right.

[hay rick]

19. K&R