THE POLITICO reports that President Obama is still undecided about whether to fire Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, even after a VA Inspector General’s report found "systemic" problems at the agency. The story includes one of the most ridiculous sentences ever written about someone whose job title includes the word "commander."
[Obama] has reached the point where he doesn’t know if Shinseki will be able to fix the problems at the VA, White House aides said Wednesday.
Think about that for a second. More than a month after the VA scandal came to light, the President of the United States has arrived at the conclusion that he doesn’t know what to do. He has endeavored to decide, and has accomplished indecisiveness.
Obama found the IG report "extremely troubling," we are told. A number of Senate Democrats (albeit only those who are up for reelection) have called for Shinseki’s resignation. Either Shinseki will be fired or he won’t. As is often the case when it comes to scandals and crises, we are left wondering: What the hell is he waiting for?
We are told the president has a "deliberative" leadership style, and presumably Obama and his fawning aides consider that one of his greatest strengths. The average individual is unlikely to see it as such. THE POLITICO observes:
Obama’s decision to hold off, even as that puts him at odds with more people in his own party, risks leaving him in a situation where he seems to respond only well after the outrage has boiled over. He could appear to place loyalty and defensiveness over accountability and response.
Of course, there’s a perfectly reasonable (non-political) argument for keeping Shinseki—firing him won’t change anything, and bringing in someone new could further complicate efforts to reform the agency. If that’s how Obama feels, he could make that case, just as House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) has done, instead of just muddling along and waiting for the political pressure to force his hand.
One imagines the president and his Team of Geniuses huddling in the Oval Office as Obama delivers a 30-minute monologue about the various moral components of the controversy, before handing it off to David Plouffe, who has prepared a presentation using data and pie charts regarding the politically optimal, poll-tested, focus-grouped rhetoric to deploy in response. Later, the president takes Chief of Staff Denis McDonough for a stroll around the White House grounds, and delivers another 30-minute lecture about his thought process.
"I’ve decided," Obama remarks, before McDonough can get a word in. "I don’t know."