Today I got up and switched on the radio to hear the 8 AM news.
Right near the top was the news that Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson is stepping down from consideration as Trump’s head of the VA.
The main reasons for this?
Seems to be Jon Tester and his accusations that Jackson had some problems.
Among these problems are the idea that “he was repeatedly drunk while on duty” and that he “would hand out drugs,” earning him the nickname of “candy man.”
Tester got these ideas from “more than 20 military employees,” according to Politico.
Still, none of those 20 military employees have stepped forward to say these things publicly. So in that regard, they’re nothing more than rumors.
That’s probably why legislative affairs director Short “called out Tester for repeating the allegations.”
Many say they never saw Jackson drunk or handing out prescriptions. Even Obama’s National Security Council chief of staff said that he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Jackson “in a hotel bar.”
Alas, the damage was done. Yesterday Trump hinted that Jackson might want to drop out, and today Jackson did so.
Democrats see this as a big win. Maybe even Tester feels that way.
I don’t.
Tester really shot himself in the foot here. All that work he’s done over the past couple months to paint himself as ‘cozying-up-to-Trump’ with all the bills he’s gotten the president to sign is now down the drain.
Trump is now Tester’s enemy. Trump said Tester will “pay a big price” for what he did here.
I have no doubt that will be the case. Good thing Tester is raising tons of out-of-state money, as he’s gonna need it now.
The national PACs are going to skewer him, whereas before they would have taken just a passing interest.
Tester really fucked himself on this one.
Sure, Tester views himself as a champion of veterans, but for years now he’s efforts have fallen short.
The Montana VA system is still in shambles, something we’ve reported on many times. Whether it’s the still incredibly long wait times, Jon’s lies to veterans, or veterans wanting to kill themselves after visiting Fort Harrison, Tester hasn’t done much to improve anything.
The national PACs will do a good job painting that picture, and the Trump-leaning voters of the state will eat that up.
Democratic voters will mostly stay home, with only the die-hards in the cities coming out in force.
God, the Republicans now have their best shot at beating Tester that they’ve had all cycle!
All of this reminds me of when Bullock got in the news after firing Angela McLean and then the idea of a sex scandal came up.
Much like with Jackson, there were no people that wanted to come forward publicly to tell these rumors. Much like with the 20 military employees and Tester, they let someone else come out and spread the rumors.
Back in 2015, it was that Bullock was screwing his commerce director in his office when his lieutenant governor walked in on them.
Supposedly she was shocked, ran back to her office, and proceeded to tell a couple people what she’d just seen.
Shortly after that, Mclean was fired from her job. I detailed all of this in the Bullock-McLean timeline post.
That news spread on November 30 of that year. By December 4 the Dem mouthpiece blogs were calling the scandal “just another diversion from the GOP’s Noise Machine.”
By December 8 Bullock’s poll numbers had fallen to below 50%, forcing him to issue a negative-McLean statement a few days later.
Ultimately, Bullock survived the scandal, even though more names surfaced of the women he’d cheated on his wife with.
But all that was over 2 years ago now, and since common-citizen-voices here in Montana don’t have as much clout as does a U.S. Senator’s voice in Washington, Bullock got through the scandal with no problem.
Only took a couple days for Dems to sink the GOP pick to head the VA, however.
It helps if you have a left-leaning, corporate media to back you up and spread the word quickly. About all we got here in Montana were hints and one question in the debate on whether Bullock had cheated on his wife (spoiler: he denied he had).
It’s also interesting how quickly Jackson stepped down compared to Al Franken.
Well, Jackson’s out and his career is done, while Bullock thinks he could be the next president.
Personally, I can’t wait until 2019 when the national PACs dig into the Bullock sex scandal and get it out into the mainstream news.
Whether Tester will still be around then is anyone’s guess. Like I said, before the Jackson scandal, I think he had a good chance.
Now I see his chances diminishing. Trump is not someone you want as an enemy, and Tester should have known that. He should have had a safe Democrat air this news.
But he did not, and I feel he will pay a “big price” as Trump suggests.
And for Democrats, this is good…in two ways:
- For corporate, Hillary-Democrats like Tester and the Helena mafia, this is a chance to raise even more corporate and out-of-state money. I bet the campaign, $5-here-and-$10-there emails have already gone out.
- For progressive, Bernie-Democrats – the ones the Dems think will vote for the Greens here in Montana this year – getting Tester out of office is the only path to a more progressive Montana Democratic Party.
If you get Tester out of the way, Keenan will fall and the whole house of cards apparatus there on Sixth Street in Helena.
Only then will Montana Democrats have a chance at taking the legislature back, and having their vision of Montana come to the fore once again.
The reason is simple – Dems won’t just focus on the well-off in the cities anymore, but might venture out into the counties to hear what’s really going on, what the struggles really are.
Could all this come about because of a ‘drunk’ White House doctor?
In Montana, stranger things have certainly happened.
