TAMMY’S SILENCE: U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., still isn’t talking about the incidents surrounding the firing of a staffer in the wake of a Veterans Affairs scandal.
Posted on 03/11/2015 10:14:46 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
The irony cannot be lost on U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Can it?
The Madison Democrat, whose office dropped the ball on a report last year pointing to serious problems at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, fired off a press release Tuesday night nodding and saying ‘Amen’ to the initial findings of a review that reiterated what Baldwin’s folks have known for some time.
“These initial findings substantiate the troubling concerns my office has heard from current and former employees and patients at the Tomah VA,” the senator said in the statement. “As the investigation builds on this troubling evidence and moves forward, it is critical that it be conducted in a detailed, thorough, and transparent manner.”
But Baldwin has been anything but “transparent” in the weeks since she fired Marquette Baylor, the senator’s long-time deputy state director.
Baylor was let go after investigative reports broke in early January about the Tomah VA medical center’s pain-killer prescribing practices, now alleged to have led to the deaths of three veterans.
Baldwin’s office, according to reports, did nothing with an inspector general’s report last year detailing the concerns, and refused to act when a whistleblower reportedly begged Baldwin’s office to do something.
Baldwin has said nothing about Baylor’s termination, nor the hefty severance package — with a confidentiality clause — offered to the aide. As Wisconsin Reporter first reported last month, Baylor refused the payout and has enlisted the help of attorneys.
The senator’s surrogates have blamed Baylor for the botched handling of the reports.
Baldwin has not returned more than a dozen calls and emails to her D.C. office seeking comment.
She did tell USA Today in a brief interview that she is reviewing how her staff handled reports on the Tomah center.
“I am in a very detailed and careful fashion — comprehensive fashion — seeking to understand everything that happened in my office in terms of the handling of a whistleblower case,” Baldwin said. “And I will have lots more to say when we’ve come to the end of that process.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice on Wednesday reported that one of the senator’s two staffers most directly involved in the VA issue has been moved off the detail.
“What should she have done when she first got that document (inspection report) is exactly what she’s doing now. If she had, maybe people wouldn’t be dead,” Cheri Cannon, partner at Arlington, Va.-based Tully Rinckey PLLC, told Wisconsin Reporter last month.
Cannon, who has more than two decades of experience in the federal government, including extensive experience as a senior attorney and member of the Senior Executive Service, joined the law firm’s nationally recognized federal labor and employment practice group a little over a year ago.
She said Baldwin is “clearly in damage control.”
In February, the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed an ethics complaint asking the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Baldwin’s firing of Baylor to determine whether Baldwin acted unethically in offering a confidential severance package.
Reports this week also confirm that staff members in Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s office didn’t pass along whistleblower tips on the VA facility to the appropriate people. One whistleblower said the offices of Johnson, Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, and Baldwin all dropped the ball, but Baldwin by far missed the most opportunities to do something.
Yet, Baldwin has, since the story first broke about the allegations, called for several investigations into the Tomah facility.
She made sure to comment again on the latest findings, released Tuesday, that detailed various unsafe practices at the center in psychiatric care and pain management. Medical staff extensively prescribed opiates and tranquilizers, according to the report.
“They would want you to take more drugs instead of finding something that would work. They would just give you something to basically say, ‘shut up,’” Jason Bishop, a former patient at the VA center, told Fox News.
He didn’t like returning for treatment because the sight of fellow veterans lining the hallways with “empty eyes” depressed him.
“They’re breeding drug addicts,” Bishop said.
While Baldwin remains tight-lipped about the involvement of her office, Bice points out she remains committed to fundraisers at the homes of big check-writing liberal lobbyists.
The senator says she wants accountability.
“I also believe that the final result of this investigation must include appropriate corrective action that brings accountability to those responsible for the problems at the Tomah VA and puts in place solutions to prevent these problems and tragedies from ever happening again,” Baldwin said in her press release following the latest review.
TAMMY’S SILENCE: U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., still isn’t talking about the incidents surrounding the firing of a staffer in the wake of a Veterans Affairs scandal.
Tammy Baldwin still ducking questions about Tomah problems.
FReep mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
A little more scandal and she could run for higher office!
Once again, please let me apologize to My Fellow Americans. This woman was BOUGHT AND PAID FOR by outside money and foisted on Wisconsin.
And now she’s America’s Problem. :(
P.S. Mike Kittle ROCKS. He is Wisconsin’s only hope for getting the scoop on this kind of stuff.
Please give The Wisconsin Reporter a hit, if you would be so kind. He blew the lid off of the illegal ‘John Doe’ investigations into Governor Walker and his staff.
Liberal homosexual donor money bought her the seat.
It sure did!
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