Ronny Jackson in the Mosh Pit Trump has ill-served his nominee to run Veterans Affairs.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ronny-jackson-in-the-mosh-pit-1524613038
Operations when death is all but assured are called suicide missions, and it’s beginning to look as if Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson was sent on a political version. The nominee to run Veterans Affairs has been under siege from the agency’s bureaucracy, anonymous press leaks, and on Tuesday even friendly fire from the President who nominated him.
The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Tuesday postponed Dr. Jackson’s Wednesday confirmation hearing amid allegations of misconduct during his nearly five-year tenure as physician to the President. The charges have been mostly vague and anonymous, such as running a hostile work environment, which could mean anything or nothing.
Late Tuesday afternoon news leaked about a 2012 Inspector General report that found “unprofessional behaviors” from Dr. Jackson and another physician in a power struggle. But if this is accurate, why did President Obama promote him? Senator Jon Tester (D., Mont.) in a press interview said some of Dr. Jackson’s colleagues alleged he had been “repeatedly drunk” while on duty, among other claims.
The public has little way to evaluate the merits, and Dr. Jackson deserves at minimum to know who is shooting at him. Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson and Ranking Member Mr. Tester wrote to the White House requesting more information, including communications with Defense Department IGs. There may be more to learn from the documents the White House produces.
The reality is that Dr. Jackson wasn’t vetted or adequately prepared for the VA post, and by all accounts wasn’t seeking it when President Trump chose him. Dr. Jackson also doesn’t appear to have a background in Washington’s treacherous politics of veterans.
For weeks veterans groups have panned Dr. Jackson as too inexperienced, and that’s in part because they’re invested in maintaining power centers and federal dollars at the VA. Add the inherently emotional nature of any policy change that affects service members. These forces are hard enough to fight for a reformer with experience and pristine credentials.
The person responsible for this mess is President Trump, who did his nominee no favors Tuesday by saying he “told Admiral Jackson just a little while ago, what do you need this for? This is a vicious group of people that malign” and that it will be up to Dr. Jackson whether to proceed. Thanks for the help, chief.
We wrote when President Trump picked Dr. Jackson that he had put Dr. Jackson in a rough spot, and now here we are. If the doctor is run out of town with his reputation trashed, Mr. Trump will find it even harder to find people to take these jobs.
Never Trumpers still complain, against all evidence, that Donald Trump will usher in a fascist regime. The truth is that Mr. Trump’s already weak executive authority is being ground down on a daily basis by the iron triangle of the permanent bureaucracy, the interest groups that support it, and the media.
We have no idea what else will emerge in the coming days about Dr. Jackson, but if he withdraws, then perhaps the Trump White House will try to choose someone better armed and prepared to battle the forces that want to preserve a status quo that ill-serves veterans.
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