Can't Leave Soon Enough, Jim

In the past, I afforded outgoing Veterans Administration head Jim Nicholson a measure of respect because he served our country for eight years as a paratrooper and Ranger-qualified U.S. Army officer before serving 22 years in the Army reserve (based on his White House bio here, assuming it is to be believed).

No more; this story tells us that, while overseeing the VA, he acted in a manner typical for any Bushco flunky while running that agency, and as a result…

…a coalition of injured Iraq war veterans is accusing VA Secretary Jim Nicholson of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.

…

Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed warriors on several fronts — from providing prompt disability benefits, to adding staff to reduce wait times for medical care to boosting services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying out benefits. The VA and Pentagon have generally denied such charges.

…

…In the lawsuit, they note that government investigators warned as early as 2002 that the VA needed to fix its backlogged claims system and make other changes.

…

The lawsuit cites violations of the Constitution and federal law, which mandates at least two years of health care to injured veterans.

Here’s more on our dear friend and departing secretary.

Short of my words of utter disgust, I’ll merely add this; looking into what happened here could end up as yet more work for Henry Waxman (hope he doesn’t plan to take vacations for awhile – should probably get a round-the-clock bodyguard also, knowing this bunch).

Also (speaking of our service people), it seems that preferred Bushco contractor (and former Wolfowitz-one-time-squeeze-employer) SAIC had more recent trouble with veterans’ data (and this interesting post gives us more background – I just showed some disrespect to kos in another forum, but he said that a party that doesn’t like government won’t govern well; he’s right, and this is part of that).