This morning, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki offered his resignation to President Obama. The resignation came after more than 100 members of Congress in both parties called for Shinseki to step down, in light of the growing problems facing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Two Democrat Senators up for re-election in 2014 who did not find enough evidence in the Inspector General’s report to call for Shinseki’s ouster: Mark Begich (D-AK) and Mark Pryor (D-AR).

Just yesterday, Pryor said he was still “not yet” ready to call for Shinseki to resign from the VA. Why? Evidently the tragedy in Phoenix in which 40 veterans died while waiting for care on a secret waiting list was not enough for Pryor,who said:

“I want to see how widespread this is. I want to see what is going on there. I want to get inside the numbers a little bit, not just the big top line number.”

Also yesterday, Begich held a press conference, specifically about veterans’ issues. When asked if Shinseki should resign, the AP reports Begich was “reserving judgment.”

It’s not clear what these senators were looking for, but what is clear is that they failed to stand up for the thousands of veterans in their states.

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NBC’s SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: “Let’s talk about some of the issues in your district. As you well know, Fort Bragg is in your district. Your brother served two tours of duty in Iraq. I’m sure you’re following what’s happening with the scandal at the Veterans Administration, with the delays in treatments for vets. Do you think Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, should resign?”

AIKEN: “I don’t know, but I mean, I think we have a lot of people who are making decisions without being in the room. I’m not going to be one of those folks who wasn’t in the hearings, hasn’t paid attention to those details, and wasn’t privy to that stuff in making decisions for that. But I will say, we’ve gotta do a better job of funding the VA, we’ve gotta do a better job of organizing the VA. I think the VA should be possibly not in the healthcare business so much, as in the veterans care business in taking care of the needs of veterans. The veterans unemployment rate is 11 percent, four point higher than the rest of the population. We’ve got—it’s a very mismanaged organization and we’ve gotta do a better job of cleaning it up.”

Full story HERE.