-By Warner Todd Huston
In Illinois we have a complicit, left-wing media establishment that will never write a bad story about Democrats. This deal with 8th District Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth–a candidate for the US Senate, no less–is a perfect example. Duckworth is being accused of punishing two whistleblowers who were trying to uncover Duckworth’s massive mismanagement when she was at the VA and yet the media is practically silent on the story.
Durckworth is now being sued by two whistleblowers who came forward to reveal her complete mismanagement of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. They are suing because when they tried to bring this info forward, Duckworth retaliated against them and punished them for shining a light on the mismanagement.
Duckworth is currently selling herself as an ideal candidate for the US Senate and will run against the weak spinned Republican Mark Kirk in 2016. One of her claims to fame is her tenure at the Illinois VA where she served as Director Of The Illinois Dept. Of Veterans Affairs between December 15, 2006 and February 6, 2009.
“I Have Been A Very Effective Administrator… I’m Proud Of The Work That I Did At The State Of Illinois Department Of Veteran’s Affairs,” she said on WFLD in April.
But that isn’t what the Illinois Auditor General said in his 2008 report entitled, “Compliance Examination: State Of Illinois Department Of Veterans’ Affairs.”
The Inspector general found in part that there were major instances In which the Illinois VA failed to properly comply with federal and state law as well as the VA’s own internal regulations.
The audit found seven major instances of non-compliance and mismanagement such as the following:
- The IL VA “Did Not Maintain Adequate Internal Controls Over Travel.”
- The IL VA “Did Not Exercise Adequate Controls Over Employee Attendance.”
- The IL VA “Did Not Comply With The Department Of Veterans Affairs Act Regarding An Annual Review Of The Benefits Received By Illinois Veterans.”
- The IL VA “Did Not Comply With The National Guard Veterans Exposure To Hazardous Materials Act.”
- The IL VA “Inaccurately Compiled And Reported The Activities Of Its Veterans’ Service Officers.”
- The IL VA “Did Not Enforce Compliance With Its Grant Agreements’ Requirements Regarding Timely Submission Of Required Reports.”
- The IL VA “Did Not Report Certain Financial Information To The Office Of The Comptroller Through The Financial Reporting Process.”
It should be noted that when Duckworth was running for Congress she denied that this situation even existed. Naturally she lied and the media let her get away with it then, too.
Now a trial date has been set in the Duckworth whistleblower trial and Duckworth will be forced to testify to her lies and her mismanagement. The hearing is set for August 4.
As the Pantagraph reported this month:
In the suit, employees Christine Butler and Denise Goins say they ran into trouble at their jobs after complaining about the facility’s acting chief, Patria Simms.
Butler said Duckworth fired her during a visit to the Anna facility, saying she had been “insubordinate.” The termination was reversed four days later and she was placed on paid leave.
On the same day Butler was fired, Duckworth is alleged to have met with Goins, who said she had been given negative evaluations after reporting what she believed were breaches of state rules by Simms.
During the meeting, Duckworth referred to Butler’s termination and “intentionally sought to prevent Goins from raising any further complaints, stating, `If you do your job and keep your mouth shut and concentrate on job duties, you will keep your job,'” the lawsuit notes.
Goins “reasonably believed that this statement violated her right to report misconduct as a whistleblower” under state law.
And this is the mess that Duckworth made when she ran the VA. Yet, where are the Illinois media outlets on this story?
If this were a sitting Republican congressperson and candidate for US Senate this story would be about all the Illinois left-wing media could talk about.
Remember how they destroyed Jack Ryan? Remember how they destroyed Aaron Schock? And neither of them were nearly as corrupt as Duckworth. Yet we get silence from the media.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Wizbang.com, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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