On Memorial
Day weekend, scores of thousands of bikers arrived here for their annual Rolling Thunder tribute to
America’s veterans, especially those lost in our wars or left behind.
But this year the tribute has been sullied by a squalid
scandal in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sick vets seeking medical care at the Phoenix
VA hospital were put on waiting lists, but never got to see a doctor. Dozens
died. Then waiting lists were altered to make it appear that VA staffers had not
failed in their duty to provide the vets access to care in the required 14 days.
Some vets suffered for months before dying.
There is truly something rotten in the state.
But, rest assured, this scandal of deceit, dishonor and betrayal is not going
to go away soon.
For unlike Benghazi
and the IRS
scandals, the major media are looking into how widespread was this practice
of denying care to vets and doctoring waiting lists to lie about what was done,
and not done, at the VA hospitals. And as this is both an easily understood and
deeply emotional issue, the public is fully engaged.
Our commander in chief wisely
used his weekend to visit our troops
in Afghanistan. But between Memorial Day and June 6, when the president
speaks at Normandy on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, this metastasizing
scandal is going to bleed his administration.
And this crisis gripping the second largest Cabinet department underscores a
larger truth.
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