Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had some wise words on how to tackle indiscretions in Washington, airing them in an unlikely place and calling for what seems to be a dirty word in the Obama administration — accountability.
Recommended Stories
While appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” to discuss his new book, “Duty,” on Wednesday night, host Jon Stewart asked Gates what the secret to his success was in turning around living conditions for veterans at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Md. The former secretary of defense, who lamented over Congress’ micromanagement of the Department of Veteran Affairs, noted that his intervention — and eventual success — came strictly from the need to hold people accountable.
“One of the reasons things changed almost immediately was because I fired the commander of that hospital, the Surgeon General of the Army and the Secretary of the Army,” Gates told Stewart. “That got people’s attention. And part of the problem in Washington is the unwillingness to hold individuals accountable for performance. And I tried to do that.”
Gates said he had noticed recent accounts in the media regarding the Air Force nuclear program, for which there was a mass exodus of officers who cheated on monthly proficiency exams. The former defense secretary said such an event could have been prevented had people been held accountable, noting that he fired both the Air Force chief of staff and Air Force secretary in 2008 for their failings with the nuclear program.
But Gates, who served in both the Bush and Obama administrations, said that willingness to hold people accountable comes from even the highest levels.
“Whether it’s Veterans Affairs or any place else, and it’s not just at the top, you’ve got to be willing to hold people accountable and show that there are consequences for not getting the job done,” he said.
Holding people responsible for their actions, however, has been a rare occurrence in Washington as Gates noted, especially during the Obama administration. Despite the revelations of many scandals, from the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative groups to the recent botched roll out of the Affordable Care Act, accountability is a concept President Barack Obama hasn’t quite grasped.
After multiple media outlets reported just months into President Obama’s second term the IRS had targeted right-of-center groups, effectively stonewalling many from obtaining nonprofit status, many called for then-head of the agency’s exempt organizations division Lois Lerner to be fired.
While testifying about the agency’s abuses on Capitol Hill, Lerner pled the fifth. She announced her retirement from the IRS in September.
Then, as the federal health insurance marketplace, healthcare.gov, opened to system failures and malfunctions — despite the billions pumped into its creation — others begged for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to be held accountable. The White House, however, failed to act.
Maybe President Obama should take a page out of Gates’ playbook.
Watch Gates’ interview with Stewart below.
