VA Secretary resigns, Obama accepts with 'considerable regret'

After all the excuses and lip service on Capitol Hill, as well as the President's military rounds this week, looks like Shinseki is falling on his sword to protect Obama (and Democratic reelections). Note, this is the VA Secretary taking the lead, though, not the President...typical.

NYDailyNews: President Obama accepted the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Friday as politics trumped the President’s clear admiration for the retired four-star general.

Shinseki did not want to leave. But his desire to stay and clean up what he now concedes are “systemic” foul-ups with hospital wait times crashed into election-year realities facing Obama and fellow Democrats.

Obama said he accepted the resignation “with considerable regret” and praised Shinseki’s “service to this country” and reforms he’d announced earlier Friday.

The President said he made the move now because he accepted Shinseki’s own “belief that he would be a distraction from the task at hand.” He deflected the suggestion that Shinseki was a scapegoat.

Uh huh...another one under the bus. And though Obama claims that the VA will be fixed this time, we’ve heard that all before. Remember, and he even mentioned it in this morning's presser, then-Senator Obama was a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee...and still did nothing, except promise to fix it when he became President.

Related links: Breaking: Obama to speak after Shinseki meeting; Update: Shinseki out
BREAKING: Shinseki Resigns…
Obama Blames Bush For VA Scandal, “This Predates My Presidency”
Obama briefed on VA problems as far back as 2005
Senator Obama missed 51% of Senate Veterans Affairs Committee meetings