Hey, Accountability!

Look at this, somebody in the government does something wrong and actually gets fired for it:

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson announced several personnel changes yesterday that will include the firing of a senior career data analyst who lost the sensitive personal information of millions of veterans.

The 60-year-old civil servant, a GS-14 employee who earns between $91,407 and $118,828 a year, has been notified that he will be terminated, VA officials said. The employee violated department policy by taking home electronic files containing the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of as many as 26.5 million veterans.

In other changes, Michael H. McLendon, deputy assistant secretary for policy, submitted his resignation Friday and will leave the department at the end of the week. Dennis M. Duffy, who has been acting assistant secretary for policy and planning, was placed on administrative leave yesterday, Nicholson said in a statement.

Nicholson didn't find out about this for three weeks, and the guy responsible for telling him was sacked. Still, the ultimate authority rests with him, and I wish he'd consider stepping down as well. This is about the worst thing that could happen coming out of the VA Department's office.

I wonder if this virus of accountability will spread up to higher offices in the executive branch. Nah, I don't think there's cabinet post-to-cabinet post contact just yet.