Vermont's Bernie Sanders presided over the hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee yesterday at which Eric Shinseki got roasted over a slow flame. Sanders was in fine form, thundering away, not merely at Shinseki, and not merely at the likely criminals who fudged reports and shredded documents to cover their own incompetence, but at the way this country has treated veterans in general, especially those returning from the wars launched by the Avignon Presidency.

Cranking up the ol' Wayback machine, this put me in mind of a day back in February, when I was at a press conference in the Capitol, and Sanders had to come out and explain that a carefull crafted piece of legislation regarding veterans benefits had been sunk as part of the ongoing Republican strategy of stalling everything until the country collapses and they can all become Lords Of The Rubble. (I'm paraphrasing a bit.) He was not happy that day, either.

Only two Republicans were willing to vote with Sanders, and the bill died a procedural death. The final straw was an attempt by Republican legislators to hang an amendment onto the bill calling for increased sanctions on Iran. There was also some cheap bullshit thrown around about the budget, most notably by Senator Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions of Alabama. There also was, spectacularly, some debate time taken up by, believe it or not, Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI!

There was a lot of talk yesterday about how bipartisan the outrage is at the blossoming VA scandal, and how bipartisan the agreement is that we have to do better by the people we send to make war in places around the world. In February, the Republicans had a chance to put up or shut up. They shut up. They should continue to do so.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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