Bob CollinsThe head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, hired to clean up the scandal-ridden agency, admitted overnight that he lied about his military service.
He was a West Point graduate, alright. He was in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He just wasn’t a member of United States Special Forces as he indicated.
“I have great respect for those who have served our nation in Special Forces,” Mr. McDonald said in a statement. “They, and all veterans, deserve a Department of Veterans Affairs that provides them the care and benefits they have earned.”
McDonald made his original statement of service while taking part in an on-the-street survey of homeless veterans (1:08 in the video below). A CBS News camera was rolling when he made his assertion.
This is the sort of scandal that can keep the media and Washington talking for weeks. The opportunists smell blood in the water.
That’s weeks longer than the scandal about homeless veterans in America.
While we’re on the subject — and before we get back to the politics of homeless vets — it’s worth passing along this note that came via the Minnesota State Patrol on Facebook:
A trooper on Jan. 20 located a pedestrian on I-94 near the 11th Street ramp in Minneapolis. The trooper determined the man was a homeless veteran and traveling across the country and brought the man to the Perkins in Plymouth.
An employee at the Perkins picked up the story from there:
