Veterans Affairs Chief Resigns

[cynatnite]

WASHINGTON - Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who had to explain the theft of agency computer files containing personal data on millions of veterans and active service members, announced Tuesday he is resigning.

The 69-year-old Nicholson, who is returning to the private sector, is the latest in a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of President Bush's administration.

Nicholson, a decorated Vietnam war veteran, has headed the Department of Veterans Affairs since February 2005. Before that, he was U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Nicholson also headed an interagency task force of seven Cabinet officers that President Bush set up in response to problems with patient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center here. The administration had been embarrassed earlier this year by revelations of shoddy care for veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070717/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/veterans_nicholson

[Raven]

1. My Doctor, who has always been a conservative Republican,

told me today that he thought the administration was incomeptent but he saved some real venom for, as he put it "that General/Doctor who allowed WRAMC to go to ruin around him." "We take an oath, you know" he told me.