Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
Sen. Richard Burr is not backing away from the fight he picked with veterans' groups. After Burr accused the groups of not calling for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign because they care more about their insider influence than about their members,
he got blasted; the leaders of the Paralyzed Veterans of America said Burr "clearly represent[s] the worst of politics in this country" and the leaders of the Veterans of Foreign Wars said Burr's attack "is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we’ve witnessed."
To Burr, though, this is all evidence he was right all along:
“In fact, the reaction from some of the Veterans Service Organizations —VFW, DAV, and PVA — seems to prove my point: their national leadership are far more outraged by my words than they have been about the VA scandal or Secretary [Eric] Shinseki’s mismanagement of the agency,” he added, referring to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Burr's position, in other words, is "they got angry when I attacked them for disagreeing with me, therefore I must be right." According to Richard Burr, there is apparently no way for these veterans' groups to have a different view of the situation at the VA for any reason other than that their integrity is compromised. The only reason to
not call for Shinseki's resignation, in Burr-land, is to suck up to Shinseki, but if you do what Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee ranking member Sen. Richard Burr wants, that's simply an expression of a valid opinion, not sucking up.