MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is reporting that the Senate has confirmed by unanimous consent Gen. Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs, along with the majority of President Obama’s nominees. UPDATE: Reuters article here.
KHON/FOX’s Gina Mangeiri interviews Gen. Shinseki last night:
“Very exciting and aloha to all our friends in Hawaii looking forward to it and very excited looking forward to it this is about our veterans something about I have a great passion for,” Shinseki added.
The culmination of Shinseki’s role earns the praise of Senator Dan Inouye.
“You have a new administration that will bring the credibility of the United States back,” says Inouye.
And with Obama in the White House, Shinseki on the cabinet - and Inouye himself chairing the senate’s most powerful appropriations committee, there’s just one way to sum up our Island stature.
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, center, stands with Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Shinseki’s nomination by President-elect Barack Obama to become the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Gannett News Service, Heather Wines)
Abbreviated from Jen DiMascio’s post on politico.com: Retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, who appears in line for breeze-easy confirmation as secretary of veterans affairs, vowed on Wednesday to “treat our vets with respect and dignity.” Shinseki also pledged to quickly implement the G.I. Bill passed last year by Congress and make sure the VA can start rolling out new educational benefits for veterans on Aug. 1 as promised. Other pressing issues include cutting into a sizable veterans health care claim backlog and merging electronic health records of the Pentagon and the VA – two issues he said are connected, because the backlog will be eased by moving toward a paperless, computerized system.
Hal Donahue, writing yesterday on the Huffington Post, says “General Shinseki deserves quick Senate approval; veterans desperately need him.”
Somehow caring for the veteran and his family is lost as it is in the mission statement. Many current executives at both the national and regional levels appear to have neither the will nor the courage to fight the fight for our veterans. Or perhaps they are just worn out from trying? Perhaps they provided more with less for so long that they now feel that they are being asked to do everything with nothing? Why? The answer is to save money to fight Bush’s Iraq War and for tax cuts for the well off trickle down that never did trickle down.
The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, chaired by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), starts at 10 a.m. ET in room 106 of the Dirksen Bldg.
“Michelle Obama said to understand Barack you have to understand Hawai’i. The same is true for Eric Shinseki,” said Warren Haruki, as quoted today in The Honolulu Advertiser.
Haruki is Shinseki’s nephew and currently president of Grove Farm, a major Kaua’i landowner. Haruki is also a former president of Verizon Hawaii, the local telephone company, now Hawaiian Telcom.
At least some of Shinseki’s leadership skill comes from “growing up in a diverse place where nobody was a majority, everyone was a minority,” Haruki said.
If Shinseki, a third-generation descendant of Japanese immigrants who was born and raised on Kaua’i, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he’ll be the first Hawai’i-born person to serve in a presidential Cabinet.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that Gen. Shinseki has said he will reopen benefits to hundreds of thousands of middle-income veterans denied during the Bush administration.
In a 54-page disclosure obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the government’s second largest agency also urged Congress to set VA funding a year in advance to minimize political pressures. And the former Army chief of staff said he will step down from the corporate boards of defense contractors to alleviate potential conflicts of interest.
“If confirmed, I would focus on these issues and the development of a credible and adequate 2010 budget request during my first 90 days in office,” Shinseki wrote to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, noting that VA funding in the past created “significant management difficulties” that delayed medical care.
The Senate committee is scheduled to hold Shinseki’s confirmation hearing on Jan. 14.
Roxana Tiron of TheHill.com today reports that many of Obama’s Cabinet selections, including Gen. Shinseki, made no donations at all to Obama, or any other presidential campaign.
“The president-elect’s sole criterion for assembling his Cabinet is looking for people of outstanding qualifications and excellence to serve the American people,” said Tommy Vietor, Obama’s spokesman.
While several of Obama’s Cabinet picks maxed out their contributions, many donated in the $2,000 range, such as Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), Obama’s choice to become secretary of Labor.
Other Cabinet choices, however, made no contribution to any presidential candidates. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), designated to become secretary of the Interior, did not contribute anything to Obama’s campaign. Salazar endorsed Obama in December 2007.
Salazar joins the ranks of other Cabinet picks who did not donate to any campaign, including Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), Timothy Geithner, retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki and retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Jones.
