February 15, 2018: Crooks and Shady Characters in the Trump Administration

2/15/18: If you follow the news obsessively, as Mr. Blogger does (even now, on vacation) you can’t help but notice a trend. There are a lot of shady characters, not to mention outright crooks, in the Trump administration. 

Today’s example: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, just the latest member of this pirate crew to have his hand slapped for wasteful and/or illegal spending. 

Secretary Shulkin has now been blasted by his own agency’s inspector general. The matter at hand was a 10-day European trip Shulkin and his wife took in the summer of 2017. Shulkin first claimed he paid all expenses for the trip himself. 

In a 97-page report the inspector disagreed. He outlined “a number of serious derelictions.” Shulkin had “improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets.” He had turned an aide into a “personal travel concierge” to plan “high tea” and “Roman baths” during the trip, at the request of his wife, a Philadelphia dermatologist. The inspector general found that Shulkin’s chief of staff altered an email to make it appear “that Secretary Shulkin would be receiving an award” in Denmark, so his wife’s $4,300 airline ticket would be paid by the U.S. government. 

Actually, it would be paid for by suckers like me, who didn’t vote for Trump, and suckers like you, if you did.

Roman baths and high teas.

 

Here, I might point out that in criticizing Trump and his swindler’s crew, I almost never quote Democrats, which would be like shooting catfish in a toilet. 

Let’s turn instead to Republican Congressman Mike Coffman for comment. Coffman is a veteran of the Gulf and Iraq Wars. He says he’s “deeply offended” by Shulkin’s antics and calls for him to step down. “He’s really part of the culture of corruption that too often defines this [Veteran’s Affairs] organization. I just don’t think that he has the moral authority to clean it up.” 

Regardless, Mr. and Mrs. Shulkin will always have their memories of those high teas and Roman baths. (See: 2/18/18 and 3/2/18, for additional examples of malfeasance and wasteful spending.)