Wednesday, March 28th, 2007...10:11 am
Wherein Jack Harper Makes This Into Another Partisan Food Fight
Tim Bee and Jim Weiers have assembled a committee of legislators to look into the apalling conditions at the Arizona Veterans Home. The committee will include Southern Arizona legislators Jonathan Paton, Manny Alvarez, Victor Soltero and Charlene Pesquiera.
I’m glad the legislature is taking action on this. And, yes, Janet Napolitano bears responsibility since it did happen on her watch. She understands this so she has taken action: calling for an investigation into charges of nepotism, moving the responsibility of the home out of that department and securing the resignation of the her Veteran’s Services chief. Still, the legislature should look into the management of the facility, it is their job.
However, I saw a revealing paragraph at the end of the press release sent by Weiers and Bee:
“It is inconceivable that the governor of Arizona and U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, who served on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, could overlook such shameful conditions of veterans entrusted in their care,” [Sen. Jack] Harper said.
Okay, get mad at the governor. I can understand that. But, Harry Mitchell?
Mitchell serves on the Veteran’s Affairs committee in congress. Yes, he’s got responsibility for federal Veteran’s facilities. And, he has taken action on a number of fronts, including authoring a bill on the conditions at Walter Reed (not a Veteran’s Hospital, but the issues are similar). What Harper doesn’t seem to get is that Mitchell’s responsibility is over federal facilities, this is a state facility.
Arizona constitution quiz for Sen. Harper: of the following people, who has more oversight responsibility for state managed veterans facilities?
A - A United States Congressman
B - A State Senator
C - Sandy Rathbun
Harper also criticizing Mitchell for ignoring the problems at the State Veteran’s home during his recent visit. The only trouble is, Mitchell’s high profile tour was of the federal Department of Veteran’s Affairs facilities in Phoenix, not of the State Veteran’s home. And, in fact, he noted the problems there and has been authoring legislation to address them.
This could be a rare moment of bipartisanship from our leaders on West Washington. I think it is safe to say that people on all sides are angry about the conditions at the home. Leave it to Sen. Harper see the problems of our aged veterans as another way to score cheap political points against a congressman he doesn’t like.
1 Comment
March 28th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Also, this has been going on for a long, long time and Harry Mitchell has been in Congress for about ninety days. I wonder if Sen. Harper’s wrath extends to Sen. McCain, who has long professed to speak on behalf of veterans, and certainly has been in a position to do much more than Harry Mitchell ever has for a much longer time.
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