{"id":29352,"date":"2018-04-24T20:04:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29352"},"modified":"2018-04-24T20:04:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:04:11","slug":"va-nominee-on-the-ropes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29352","title":{"rendered":"VA nominee on the ropes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mediadc.brightspotcdn.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-29353\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mediadc.brightspotcdn.com_-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mediadc.brightspotcdn.com_-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mediadc.brightspotcdn.com_-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mediadc.brightspotcdn.com_-1024x580.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mediadc.brightspotcdn.com_.jpg 1060w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So help me I didn&#8217;t see this one coming.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/384625-trump-gives-cover-for-va-pick-to-withdraw-nomination\">Navy Admiral Dr. Ronny Jackson&#8217;s<\/a> nomination to become the next veterans affairs secretary did raise an eyebrow our two. Mine weren&#8217;t among them initially.<\/p>\n<p>Now we hear that the White House physician allegedly promoted an inappropriate workplace environment and might have drunk on the job. What&#8217;s more, the president of the United States has given Jackson some cover, enabling him to withdraw his nomination if he believes it is in his best interest.<\/p>\n<p>It well might be, given the crescendo of criticism that is building.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has postponed Dr. Jackson&#8217;s confirmation hearing indefinitely. Hmm. I think that spells big trouble. Jackson said he is &#8220;disappointed&#8221; but adds that he is ready to answer all the questions that will come his way.<\/p>\n<p>What I believe we have here is a developing &#8220;distraction&#8221; that is going to yank attention away from the work that Dr. Jackson is supposed to do on behalf of the nation&#8217;s 20 million military veterans; I am one of them and I believe he needs to be focused <em>exclusively<\/em> on that important work.<\/p>\n<p>Hostile work environment? Over-prescribing of meds? Drinking on the job?<\/p>\n<p>Good grief! This is on top of the criticism that Dr. Jackson hasn&#8217;t run an agency anywhere near the size of the monstrous bureaucracy that is the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump is right: Whether he stays in the game is Dr. Jackson&#8217;s call. I won&#8217;t be a bit surprised if he pulls away from this big job.<\/p>\n<p>And that brings up another question: Why can&#8217;t the president find competent and squeaky-clean folks to do these jobs?<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So help me I didn&#8217;t see this one coming. Navy Admiral Dr. Ronny Jackson&#8217;s nomination to become the next veterans affairs secretary did raise an eyebrow our two. Mine weren&#8217;t among them initially. Now we hear that the White House physician allegedly promoted an inappropriate workplace environment and might have drunk on the job. What&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29352\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">VA nominee on the ropes?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[795,1356,1424,7719,5077],"class_list":["post-29352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-news","tag-cabinet","tag-department-of-veterans-affairs","tag-donald-trump","tag-ronny-jackson","tag-va"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29354,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29352\/revisions\/29354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}