The next chief: Whoever gets job of fixing Veterans Affairs should be the best

A day does not go by without another sad story about one of the failings of the embattled Veterans Affairs Department.

One of the most recent stories to emerge is one of the saddest.

The family of a veteran who died two years ago from a brain tumor just got notification recently that he would be able to schedule his appointment at his local VA hospital.

And sadly, this is not the only one of these stories that are starting to leak out around the country.

The scope of what appears to be nothing short of bureaucratic incompetence and wholesale failure of the system assigned to serve the needs of the nation's veterans is appalling. And we wonder if we will ever really the hear the real impact of this scandal.

But, for now, there will be a new Veterans Affairs chief -- and a whole lot of talking in Congress and perhaps the White House about what the next step is to conquer this problem.

And there will be a grilling of the man who has been nominated to the Veterans Affairs post, former Procter & Gamble chief executive officer Robert McDonald -- and there should be.

The bottom line is, this is a national scandal. It is heartbreaking to think how long this nation has let down the men and women who have dedicated their lives to keeping it free.

And it is even sadder to think that we lost some of those heroes much too early because of what can only be termed as complete mismanagement and wholesale corruption as leadership at VA hospitals sought to cover their tracks.

The person appointed to fix this disgrace must have the experience to do it effectively and efficiently. There is no room for second rate, not here. We simply do not need anymore delays.

Both Congress and the president have to be committed to getting this problem fixed now.

And getting the right leader in place is the first, crucial step.

Published in Editorials on July 2, 2014 11:16 AM