video:McCaskill Says VA Secretary Nicholson Is ‘A Brownie Situation,’

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McCaskill Says VA Secretary Nicholson Is ‘A Brownie Situation,’ Calls For Him To Resign

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) called on the Bush administration to remove Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley from his post as Army surgeon general, and to fire Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, whose appointment “looks like a Brownie situation.”

“This is a political appointment,” McCaskill said of Nicholson. “This is somebody who has spent a whole lot of the last few years defending everything about the White House.” CBS host Bob Schieffer piled on, saying “in at least two television appearances that I have seen him…he seemed unfamiliar with the services that were being offered by his own agency.” Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/11/mccaskill-nicholson-brownie/

(snip)
MCCASKILL: As in FEMA. You know, this is a political appointment. This is somebody who has spent a whole lot of the last few years defending everything about the White House. Really, that’s not the right person to be leading the agency that’s supposed to protect our veterans.

And I really think it’s time we put somebody in charge of the Veterans Administration whose first priority are the veterans and not the politics surrounding the agency.

[MasonJar]

1. What a senator! You neighbors over in Mo. are very lucky to have

such a heads up lady. Here in Kentucky we only have deranged McConnell and over the hill(in a big way) Bunning.

[Sherman A1]

2. Glad to have her as my Senator

[Monkeyman]

3. I can hear Randy go girl go

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. I thought she was great on Meet The Press during the debate for Senate and

she has impressed me since. I saw here on Face The Nation this morning and she was terrific except being the stickler I sometimes can be, I really wished she mentioned that a big part of the problem was the privatization. She talked about cronyism with the head of VA, but not the cronyism with the contracts. When I listened to the testimony of the soldiers at Walter Reed, one thought overrode the rest... these people's caseworkers were treating these soldiers as if this was an HMO. They need advocates not cost cutters managing their health care and rehabilitation.

I also she wish she brought up that injured troops are being deployed to Iraq again. This is so frigging sick.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. But NOTHING about getting the private sector out of Vet treatment

That is the bigger issue

[Sherman A1]

6. Well, I think one has to start somewhere

and you really only have just so much time on a Sunday talk to get your point across. One thing at a time.