He is well known among those who have been skeptical of the Iraq War. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003, Gen. Eric Shinseki , who has been named the new head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the U.S. would need more troops in Iraq than were planned, aggravating Donald Rumsfeld and other people in the administration. So liberals are pleased -- with good reason. This means, of course, that Tammy Duckworth, the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs who was on a short list of candidates for Shinseki's position, was not chosen. She could instead become a new senator from Illinois, taking over Obama's job. (Previously, she was being considered for both slots.)
Maybe she's lucky. Shinseki has his work cut out for him: The V.A. is the second-biggest agency in the federal government (behind the Pentagon) and many of its employees have been demoralized by the way things were handled under the Bush administration. Meanwhile, things have gotten even worse for veterans because of the recession. For example, a group of veterans recently filed suit against Veterans Affairs because of the delays they have encountered in receiving benefits, and Utah's Rep. Jim Matheson has called on the V.A. to speed up the process -- after hearing from an Iraq veteran who was having trouble paying his bills. (Another veteran, as this piece in The Salt Lake Tribune reports, has gone on food stamps.)
--Tara McKelvey
