After General Eric Shinseki stepped down as VA Secretary, President Obama nominated former Proctor and Gamble CEO Bob McDonald to replace him and turn things around at the VA. McDonald is a Republican. And from the looks of things he doesn’t really care who does or does not like him in Washington.
Today McDonald was testifying before a House Committee when a yahoo Representive from Colorado, Mike Coffman launched into him about mismanagement, cost overruns and a bunch of other stuff at the VA. Most often when administration officials – of either party – are testifying on Capitol they take a generally deferential tone, even in the face of grandstanding and grilling.
That doesn’t seem to be McDonald’s approach.
In the face of Coffman’s harangue, McDonald began by telling Coffman he was “highly offended by your comments, Mr Coffman.”
When Coffman went off again about all the things McDonald hadn’t fixed, McDonald responded: “I’ve been here six months. You’ve been here longer than I have. If there’s a problem in Denver, I think you own it more than I do.”
And then finally, when Coffman lambasted McDonald’s failures as a manager, McDonald told the congressman: “I’ve run a large company sir, what have you done?”
According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, prior to coming to Congress, Coffman ran a property management firm with just over 20 employees. Proctor and Gamble has 118,000 employees.
See the video here.
