Bob McDonald, Brian Williams, & Bill O'Reilly

Nobody expects Bill O'Reilly to tell the truth; it wasn't part of his job description but it was part of Bob McDonald's.
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Robert 'Bob' McDonald, former chief executive officer of Procter & Gamble Co., testifies during a nomination hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 22, 2014. McDonald said he'd use the skills he developed during three decades in the private sector to overhaul the troubled U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Photographer: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Robert 'Bob' McDonald, former chief executive officer of Procter & Gamble Co., testifies during a nomination hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 22, 2014. McDonald said he'd use the skills he developed during three decades in the private sector to overhaul the troubled U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Photographer: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images

I don't get it. Would you explain it to me again? Why is it okay for Robert A. McDonald, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, to lie about and embellish his past and present job experience and it's not okay for Brian Williams? (I'm not making any excuses for Brian Williams, by the way.)

But, let's be honest here, Bob McDonald was brought in to clean up the mess at the VA. Shouldn't he be held to an extraordinary level of accountability? He was not, as he stated on CBS to a homeless veteran (let me repeat that: homeless veteran) in the Special Forces. The homeless veteran was. But McDonald wasn't. And neither has he fired 60 people as he stated on NBC. It's only 20 and, he sheepishly admitted, another 40 were "disciplined." No explanation given on what that "discipline" entailed. I would like to point out that the difference between 20 and 60 is 200%.

I, also, don't understand why Representative Mike Coffman, Republican from Colorado and Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Sub-Committee of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs is jumping to his defense. One would think his job description would be quite the opposite: Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Sub-Committee. But Coffman stated (quoted in the NYTimes) about McDonald's apology for embellishing his military record, "We should all take him at his word and Washington shouldn't spend the next two weeks arguing about it." Really? Which word should we take him at?

Which brings me to Bill O'Reilly. Nobody expects Bill O'Reilly to tell the truth; it wasn't part of his job description but it was part of Bob McDonald's.

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