Editorial: Challenges for VA director

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007 | 7:35 a.m.

President Bush's nomination of Dr. James Peake for Veterans Affairs secretary appears to be sound - much sounder, anyway, than his previous choice for the position.

If confirmed by the Senate, Peake will replace James Nicholson, whom Bush nominated in late 2004 and who started work in February 2005. Unable to make any headway in solving the immense problems facing the VA, Nicholson announced his resignation in July and officially stepped down Oct. 1.

Although Nicholson is a West Point graduate and a decorated Vietnam veteran, his private background as a lawyer and a land developer and his public background as ambassador to the Vatican and chairman of the Republican National Committee hardly prepared him to lead Veterans Affairs, the second-largest Cabinet department.

In contrast, Peake is a retired lieutenant general who served four years as the Army surgeon general. He is a Cornell University-educated doctor who for 40 years held command positions in Army medical units.

This is the kind of background that is more appropriate for leading the VA, which has been rocked by its inability to effectively serve wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Peake's combat (two Purple Hearts in Vietnam) and administrative and medical background s will be encouraging to veterans who need long stays at VA hospitals, services at VA outpatient clinics and quicker action on their disability claims. The VA is so backed up on claims that veterans are forced to wait six months, on average, to hear back on them - delaying critically needed benefits .

Nevertheless, difficult questions await Peake at his confirmation hearing. For example, he was Army surgeon general from 2000 to 2004, yet when President Bush began the Iraq war in 2003, the entire military was largely unprepared for the influx of casualties. Why?

The next VA secretary must do nothing less than revolutionize the way the department cares for veterans, all with a budget that is not likely to increase, at least under the Bush administration. Peake's background as a military medical leader seems to have prepared him for the challenge.