By Lee H. Hamilton Like other federal scandals before it, the mess involving VA hospitals has followed a well-trod path. First comes the revelation of misdoing. Then comes the reaction: a shocked public, an administration on the defensive, and grandstanding members of Congress. Finally, major reform bills get introduced, debated, then put aside when the…

“There they go again.” The Gipper (President Ronald Reagan) said it of Democrats in the 1980s for what he claimed was twisting the truth in congressional battles. The same phrase could be used in Vermont these days as opponents of Gov. Peter Shumlin and his administration produce a continous chorus of negativity about the state’s…