Something stinks in VA/DCCC relationship
Something stinks in VA/DCCC relationship
Marriages are tricky things, even in the best of circumstances. On one hand, such a relationship needs to be give-and-take, with both parties giving a little to the other where needed.
However, there also needs to be boundaries.
See, I don’t think of myself as keeping secrets from my wife, but I’m also not going to give her the identity of a confidential source, either. Moreover, she knows that I can’t do that, so it’s just not a thing.
Yet if my wife was learned to have had access to privileged information that I had, it’s also logical to assume I gave it to her, right?
Which is why this looks shady as hell.
On Feb. 8, the Air Force informed two Republican political candidates, also military veterans, that their information had been improperly leaked to a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee contractor. That same day, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ chief technology officer met to discuss cybersecurity with his wife, the chairwoman of the DCCC.
"Meet w/Suzan's technology team (account security)" reads the 3:00 p.m. calendar entry on Veterans Affairs assistant secretary Kurt DelBene's official calendar, a reference to his wife, Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), chairwoman of the DCCC. The calendar entry, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, also contains a link to the DCCC's Zoom account. Just hours earlier, the Air Force notified the two veterans, Sam Peters and Kevin Dellicker, that a DCCC contractor had duped them into releasing their restricted service records during the 2022 elections.
Both Peters and Dellicker were running for Congress as Republicans when their military records were improperly obtained by a Democratic opposition research group, according to campaign disclosures. The House Weaponization Committee launched an investigation into the breach of military service records in March.
"This isn’t going away quietly," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said last Monday. "It wasn’t on just one person. It was all these Republicans running. We’re gonna have to just not clamp down on that, [but] look to see if it’s happened anywhere else."
I have every reason to believe that it did.
No, it might not have contained any useful information, but I have little doubt that the information was shared, and that’s a huge freaking problem.
Look, even if it’s nothing, the fact that it even looks sketchy is a major problem. There’s no reason for the chief technology officer of the VA to meet with anyone from the DCCC for any reason. The DCCC isn’t government and I’m not OK with my tax dollars going to benefit a non-government actor affiliated with either party.
Which is actually part of why this looks so sketchy.
The husband met with his wife on the clock to discuss something that, frankly, he really doesn’t need to discuss with anyone at the DCCC. The DCCC isn’t a governmental organization. It’s not even an entity meant to help Democrats govern while in Congress. It’s an organization that exists to help get more Democrats elected.
Now, I’m not saying the government may not have a vested interest in helping them with their cybersecurity needs. They well might. Yet is the VA the relevant agency to help with that?
It would seem to me to be the proper role of someone with either the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Veteran’s Affairs that can’t seem to handle their own business worth a damn.
Yet, that’s the meeting that happened.
It’s kind of hard not to look at that and raise an eyebrow or 12. It makes no sense unless we’re looking at the VA’s chief technology officer handing over confidential information to his wife.
If it’s not that, then someone needs to fess up to exactly what transpired and where. Otherwise, heads, pikes, some assembly required.
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