News Coverage of VA Secretary Appoinment

[Bleacher Creature]

Check out the following stories about our new Secretary of the VA:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041209/pl_afp/usbushpolitics_041209161440

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/09/bush.cabinet/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041209/ap_on_go_pr_wh/nicholson_profile_2

One doesn't even mention that he was head of the RNC, the CNN article mentions it in one fleeting sentence, and the third talks about it in greater detail, but more from an organizational perspective.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but does this appear to anyone else as being incredibly irresponsible?? The man selected to run veteran's benefits in this country is a partisan hack, and it barely gets mentioned!!

Look, I know how the system works. When you get to be President, you get to tap your political supporters to key positions. I don't expect Bush to select policy experts in every position, but to pick someone accustomed to using political games and leverage to run an organization like the VA really seems to cross some sort of line.

[Benhurst]

1. Partisan hacks don't like pointing a finger at fellow partisan hacks. NT

[Bleacher Creature]

2. Good point n/t

[KT2000]

3. Principi was breaking through

on the issue of Gulf War Illness. He was supporting the research that showed chemical exposures were responsible for Gulf War Illness. The ramifications for that are immense since the chemicals that caused the problems are used to a lesser extent by most households in the country.
Prior to his coming on board, millions in research money was spent on behavioral and exercise programs for vets with GW. The purpose of that was to convince the vets there was nothing really wrong with them.
What do you want to bet that the chemical exposure research is now dead in the water. Chemical companies are a protected species under this adminsitration.

[Bleacher Creature]

4. Look at Principi's background

http://www1.va.gov/opa/bios/index.cfm?template=Art_ArtInternet&id=29

Mr. Principi served as Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA’s second-highest executive position, from March 17, 1989, to September 26, 1992, when he was named Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs by President George Bush. He served in that position until January 1993. Following that appointment, he served as Republican chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

From 1984 to 1988, he served as Republican chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, following three years as counsel to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Principi was chairman of the Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance established by Congress in 1996.

Mr. Principi is a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and first saw active duty aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy. He later commanded a River Patrol Unit in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Prior to his nomination as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Principi was president of QTC Medical Services, Inc. During the past decade, he was senior vice president at Lockheed Martin IMS, and a partner in the San Diego law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.

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There's a world of difference between being a policy person who operates within partisan circles, and being a totally political kind of partisan. Principi seems like he is the former.

[KT2000]

5. Thanks for the info n/t