On the recordMay 28, 2014
Mr. Speaker, as the unfolding scandal at the VA demonstrates, the administration has a standard playbook for dealing with an unfolding PR disaster: The first step is to say the President learned about the situation on the news and is madder than anyone else about it; Step two is to declare an investigation underway; Step three is to implore us all to wait patiently for the always slow investigation to be completed; Step four is to declare the scandal old news. The underlying theme is that we must allow the bureaucratic machinery to sort out the problems, and we must not interfere with the process. Mr. Speaker, Samuel Johnson once said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, but in our political culture today, process is the last refuge of those who seek to avoid true accountability. ____________________
