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Senator Tammy Baldwin’s Deputy Director Accuses Her of VA Death Cover-Up
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On April 23, 2015 @ 9:31 am In The Point | No Comments
tammy baldwin2 [1]
The VA scandal isn’t done with the Democrats yet and the next phase may be rolling out. At its center is anti-war lefty Senator Tammy Baldwin, her disinterest in veterans dying at the VA and the cover-up after the story broke [2].
Marquette Baylor is finally speaking out against her long-time boss, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Baylor, fired by the Madison Democrat in February following a scandal at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center that has embroiled the junior senator, has filed an ethics complaint against Baldwin. It claims the senator lied and has engaged in a political cover-up.
“I, Marquette Baylor, bring this Ethics Complaint against my former employer, Senator Tammy Baldwin, for making false statements and representations to cover up actions by her Chief of Staff and protect her political career,” Baylor states in the complaint, filed Monday with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
This gets bigger because there are dead vets at the center of this scandal.
Baldwin caught heat after investigative reports in January detailing allegations of abuses at the VA medical center, principally the overprescribing of painkillers that allegedly led to the deaths of several patients.
Baldwin’s office, according to reports, did nothing with an inspector general’s report last year outlining the concerns and refused to act when a whistleblower reportedly begged Baldwin’s office to do something.
As the national spotlight grew hotter, Baldwin canned Baylor, her longtime deputy state director with, by all accounts, a sterling resume working for Baldwin and her predecessor, U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Milwaukee.
Now the showdown is coming.
Baylor’s damning allegations assert that, in August 2014, constituent services representatives in the Milwaukee office she managed identified “broad-scale misconduct” at multiple VA centers. At Baylor’s direction the issue was elevated to Baldwin’s state director, Doug Hill, and legislative director, Daniel McCarthy.
“Months passed without critical guidance,” the complaint states.
Later, in November of 2014, Baylor said she was informed of the VA Office of Inspector General report regarding the overprescription practices at Tomah.
“My staff and I immediately developed an action plan and sought approval from Hill, the State Director, and Murat, the Chief of Staff. Despite repeated requests for approval of the proposed action plan, our efforts were rejected by Murat. My staff and I eventually prepared memorandums directed to the Senator herself. These memorandums were either ignored by the Senator or were withheld from her by Murat,” Baylor states in the complaint.
Baylor alleges the senator and her staff have “disparaged the truth in order to cover up Murat’s actions” and to protect Baldwin’s political career.
“Had Murat, as the Chief of Staff, allowed me and other individuals to properly perform our roles, the issues surrounding the Tomah VA Medical Center would have been identified and addressed long ago,” Baylor asserts. “By attempting to place the blame at my feet, Senator Baldwin has concealed the truth, made false statements, and mischaracterized my service as the Deputy State Director.
“Her actions to cover up Murat’s willful misconduct are unbecoming of a United States Senator. She has acted unethically,” the complaint alleges.
This gets even uglier because Baldwin might have shared an anti-war agenda [3] with at least one of those responsible.
Mike Helbick, named as the point of contact for VA whistleblower Ryan Honl, is the only Baldwin staffer identified in Donovan Slack’s report on Baldwin’s failure to move on a report of opiate abuse at the facility that she received in August.
Helbick is a 2005 UW-Milwaukee grad whose most recent work experience before being hired on Baldwin’s office in 2013 was as Program Director for Peace Action Wisconsin.
Peace Action Wisconsin is a radical anti-war group located in Milwaukee whose mission is nuclear disarmament, defunding the military, and curtailing U.S. military involvement around the world.
The group actively advocates for a boycott of Israel and proposes that Israel return to the pre-1967 borders.
So maybe Helbick and Baldwin didn’t object all that much to dead vets. Baldwin is however predictably crying “Republican” [4]which is the last refuge of the political hack with no defense against the charges.
“It’s sad that Marquette Baylor has chosen to be used as a pawn by Senator Baldwin’s right-wing Republican opponents in what is nothing more than a political hit job by a go-to Republican firm,” Baldwin spokesman John Kraus told the Wisconsin State Journal.
So was Baylor working for the evil right-wing Republicans when she was employed by Baldwin? If Baylor was fired for misconduct, why not allege that, instead of barking about Republican pawns? That question answers itself.
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine:
http://www.frontpagemag.comURL to article:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/dgreenfield/senator-tammy-baldwins-deputy-director-accuses-her-of-va-death-cover-up/URLs in this post:
[1] Image:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/tammy-baldwin2.jpg[2] and the cover-up after the story broke:
http://watchdog.org/213147/tammy-baldwin-ethics-marquette-baylor/[3] Baldwin might have shared an anti-war agenda:
http://www.rightwisconsin.com/perspectives/Tammy-Baldwin-Staffer-Handling-VA-Whistleblower-Worked-For-Fringe-Anti-War-Group-289233501.html[4] predictably crying “Republican” :
http://watchdog.org/213437/tammy-baldwin-ethics-pr/
