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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for May 23rd, 2014, the Secret Waiting List edition today.

The Obama administration scrambles to respond to the VA scandal. Is it too little, too late?

Then Tea Party candidates flop in Tuesday's primaries. Does that mean the Tea Party is a spent force, or does it mean just the opposite? And then

Tanahasi Coates' phenomenal argument-starting article about reparations in the Atlantic.

I am David Plotz, the editor of Slate. I am in Slate New York this week.

Emily Bazelon has driven down, trained down, bike down from New Haven. That's right. I walked the

whole way. You walked. Good. That's very environmentally sound of you, Emily. Nicely done.

Every step of 95. How long did it take you? How long would it take to walk from New Haven here?

It would be really miserable. That would be like the worst walk in America. And then back in

Washington, protecting the homeland is John Dickerson Slate's chief political correspondent. Hello,

John. Hi. How's Washington? It's not bad. It's a little warm. I would prefer it to be a little bit more spring-like, but it's sort of incipient summer.

But other than that, it's just lovely.

Good.

All right.

Just remind your Slate Plus, which is our brand spanky new marvelous membership program, has started.

And if you're a Gabaffest listener, that gets you

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