From the right: Why the VA Needs a Combat Medic

Senators considering the nomination of Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson to head the Veterans Administration should think about the hundreds of combat vets who’ve been inappropriately denied an opportunity to receive care for post-traumatic-stress disorder, urges Marc Thiessen at Fox News. That’s why Jackson’s selection “was so inspired,” he says. Fired predecessor David Shulkin was a hospital administrator and his predecessor was CEO of Procter Gamble. Yet “countless veterans fell through the cracks . . . on their watch.” But Jackson “has been a combat medic in the field treating severely injured warriors” in Iraq. Indeed, “no other nominee to run the VA has seen the plight of our wounded warriors in the war on terrorism up close like he has.” Says Thiessen: The VA “needs a leader, not a manager.”

Foreign desk: A Surprising Option on Iran Nuke Deal

Those who want to kill the Iran nuke deal and those who want to fix it both overlook “a strong third option: keep its fate in limbo,” argues Bloomberg’s Eli Lake. There’s a more pressing issue than the deal’s fate — namely, “the fate of the Iranian regime,” which since December has “faced a cascade of crises that pose the most serious threat to the regime’s legitimacy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.” The rial has lost a third of its value and there’s a run on Iran’s banks. Unaffordable billions are being funneled to military adventures in Syria and Yemen. And Tehran has botched its response to an ongoing nationwide drought. Unlike 2009, the mullahs have been unable to quiet ongoing demonstrations. So the West should now drag out negotiations “while the regime wobbles.”



Sports desk: Why Didn’t Obama Pardon Jack Johnson?

President Trump’s “unexpected announcement” that he may pardon Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, raises what the Daily Beast’s Sam Stein calls “the obvious question: Why didn’t Barack Obama do it first?” It’s now accepted that Johnson’s real crime (he was convicted of violating the Mann Act) was “dating white women” when it was socially unacceptable for a black man to do so. The campaign for a pardon, spearheaded by Sen. John McCain, “really gained steam early in the Obama years.” Aides excused Obama’s inaction by citing a longstanding Justice Department policy against posthumous pardons. Yet Bill Clinton had pardoned Henry Flipper, the first African-American graduate of West Point, who was convicted on trumped-up charges and dishonorably discharged in 1882.



Conservative: Trump Probe’s Disturbing New Standard

Normally, notes Byron York at the Washington Examiner, when a political figure is accused of wrongdoing, journalists and public officials ask: Are the charges true? Can the accusers prove it? But when it comes to the Trump dossier — the often-salacious allegations compiled by a former British spy hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign — that “generally accepted standard of justice has been turned on its head.” Increasingly, the president’s critics argue, “the dossier is legitimate because it has not been proven untrue.” It’s an argument being heard from, among others, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd. But as fired FBI Director Jim Comey himself told Trump: “It’s very difficult to disprove a lie.”



Political scribe: Sanders Building Digital-Media Empire

Remember the final days before the 2016 election, recalls New York’s Gabriel Debenedetti, and the widespread speculation that Donald Trump, after losing, would pursue his own TV network? He denied any interest, but “it made some kind of sense” and “the calculation still works.” Yet now it’s Bernie Sanders “who’s got a mini-media empire with a dedicated following all figured out.” He hosts an interview show on Facebook Live that draws millions of views; his podcasts have topped iTunes’ list of popular programs. And his staff produced 550 original videos on social media last year alone. He’s also begun streaming live town-hall-style programs that outdraw CNN. Just like Trump, BernieTV has found a way to “get around the traditional news media” — raising all kinds of speculation for 2020.

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann