happy easter to you and yours. reasonable people will all tell you that the va is profoundly screwed up. nobody knows that more than you do. if admiral jackson is confirmed, give him a list of priorities right now. first, i would like to applaud the president for taking this step because i believe he had become ineffective and when va in manchester was imploding, i was trying to reach secretary shulkin and later found out he was at wimbledon. the highest priority is getting back to taking care of veterans. that s one of the reasons i m running ann custer in the second congressional district. when i first met with her before i went public with the boston globe, her wrist once was the va in manchester wasn t in her congressional district, which belies the fact that how many thousands of veterans used the va in manchester, so she just didn t care what was going on despite official say in the
public. leland: do you think they re firing shulkin was a good idea and by that you applaud the president for nominating ronnie jackson. you fill that s a good choice? i think the vetting process will show the qualifications. we know he is a clinician. he understands clinical medicine, which i think it s high time we had somebody like that in the secretary s position. we put together a list of the past three secretaries of veteran affairs. very different backgrounds. you talk about a clinician. it appears as though it david shulkin was a clinician in the beginning parts of his career. bob mcdonald who was a west point graduate, highly decorated member of the west point class and an army captain. general shin seki was a four-star general and a decorated vietnam veteran. what about admiral jackson? what qualities does he not have or does he have that the other three men don t have that you
nominee does have good qualifications and this will all come out in the vetting process. i think the president is going to show that he made a wise choice. leland: we haven t heard from admiral jackson as he makes his rounds on capitol hill and conceivably through the confirmation process is going to have to lay out his priorities for the va, what he thinks is wrong, how he plans to fix it. what would you tell him and what you want to hear from him as somebody who knows the va so well? what is a need to save you that you d be comfortable with? the first is this ongoing battle between the privatizers in the public sector. i think he s going to have to rely on the fact and realize while they can t be all things to every veteran, that veterans choose to use the va. again, the president is going to show. leland: i m confused that i