The Last Laugh

This is a kick in the teeth.

Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama has selected retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary.

The officials said Obama will announce his selection Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the official announcement.

Shinseki is the former Army chief of staff who upset his civilian bosses in 2003 when he testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the U.S. invasion. He was forced out of his job within months for being "wildly off the mark." But his words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating.

No incident has been used by Democratic politicians as a stick to beat the Bush Administration the way the Gen. Shinseki incident has. They didn't appreciate Shinseki's dose of reality, didn't like that he was offering a glimpse of the sacrifice Americans would suffer for an unnecessary invasion, so they fired him, basically. His reinstatement is probably a good choice - I'm making a healthy assumption that a decorated general would have the safety and good treatment of veterans in mind, but what I do know of him gives me the sense that he's honorable and competent - but more than that, it's a SYMBOL. A symbol that the age of cronyism is over. That the age of silencing dissent is over. That George Bush is over.

Nice one, Barack.