The wheels on O's bus go 'round and 'round....:
Does President Barack Obama have confidence in embattled Veterans Affairs [Commissar] Eric Shinseki?I've said for a long time now that House Speaker John Boehner has the most thankless job in D.C. because while he has to do hopelessly outnumbered battle with Barack Obama and Dirty Harry (G)Reid in front of him, he's also got to keep Tea Party knives out of his hexaribs behind him. If anybody gives the Speaker a run for that unenviable money, it's Jay Carney.
It was a simple question that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney repeatedly refused to answer Thursday, the Hill reports.
What a difference two weeks and one damning inspector general's report makes.
Carney, without hesitation, declared on May 12 that Obama was "confident in Secretary Shinseki's ability to take appropriate action based on the IG's findings."
He wouldn't utter the word Thursday the same way. no matter how hard ABC's Jonathan Karl tried at Thursday's White House briefing.
How would you like a job where you had to go out there every day and make yourself sound like a Tourette's patient on a regular basis? It's like a bizarre sort of performance art. And the best part is that Carney isn't fooling anybody in the White House press gaggle. Hell, he's one of them, remember? Everybody in that press room yesterday knew the score; that IG report has made Commissar Shinseki a dead man walking. It's just a matter of time. And Carney's refusal to simply say that yes, the dictator still has confidence in his VA poobah communicated in the clear that that confidence is no longer present. But the artifice wouldn't let him come out and say it. And thus we get this weird rhetorical waltz where Jonathan Karl exasperatedly keeps chirping the same straight-forward question - Does The One still have confidence in Eric Shinseki? - and Carney replies, "Pittsburgh," or "six and seven-eighths" or "I have a red pencil box".
If the White House follows the Sebelius template, Shinseki will be given a grand, congratulatory sendoff after the midterm elections, and several dozen more vets have died waiting for treatment. That's the only thing I can imagine that O would be waiting for. IOW, ego uber alles; never bow to the mob he himself spawned. Never let a scandal look like a scandal. And up to now, he's had that luxury, because the press has continued to bow down and worship him no matter how much he treats them like the three-dollar "journalistic" whores they really are. But this being a government healthcare scandal in the context of the ongoing ObamaCare cataclysm significantly reduces that, er, "scheduling flexibility".
Or at least, it should. The real problem with VA-gate isn't one of leadership, it's one of paradigm: government-run health care. The dictator should want as little attention on this glaring example of what ObamaCare has in store for the country as possible. Which ought to make bums-rushing Eric Shinseki out the scapegoat door a no-brainer. It's "taking action" without actually addressing the problem. It relieves the pressure, and leaves the cherished paradigm entrenchedly in place. Best of all, it burnishes Red Barry's sorry-ass "leadership" image.
But, no. Demigods don't make mistakes. Anybody who suggests otherwise has a hellfire drone missile with their name on it GPS'd to their front door. So Jay Carney keeps rolling out there to burble answers like "Boobs," "The Battle of Kasserine Pass," and "I got laid in a yellow submarine".
Nice work if you can get it.
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