in public. if al franken will not stand next to president obama in this election year, tells you everything you need to know about arkansas and alaska and louisiana and we could go on. during one of the town halls yesterday in minnesota the president was trying to make the case you see republicans hammering right now, they say incompetence and corruption at the irs, incompetence at the v.a. the president is saying no this just happens in any presidency. are there some federal workers who do boneheaded things? absolutely. i remember the first week i was on the job i talked to my defense secretary bob gates who is older and had been there a long time. i said do you have any advice for me bob? he said one thing you should know, mr. president, is that any given moment on any given day somebody in the federal government is screwing up. i don t think the republicans are going to buy that one, although it s probably factual. yeah, and that s one of the things he was going to fix, and it