Ondra Not a candidate for VA Post

On Monday I suggested that Dr. Stephen Ondra, an Army Gulf War vet who is a professor of neurological surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, had the inside track for appointment as under secretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration.

Not so, said my new best friend, Katie Roberts, Veterans Affairs Department press secretary. Ondra, she said, does serve as a senior adviser to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, but has not even applied for the top VA health job.

I told Roberts this was partly a rumor and gossip column. Roberts, who served as deputy communications director for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential campaign, said she found the Washington rumor mill "quite interesting."

I will try to make up for this error by buying her a great enchilada lunch at Charlies Spic & Span Bakery and Café here in The Original Las Vegas the next time she travels to New Mexico.