The outrages surrounding the Walter Reed scandal continue. In the latest update from the Washington Post, we see that top Bush Administration officials are now playing the blame game. Yesterday, on behalf of his boss, Tony Snow blamed the Bush Administration officials at the Pentagon. Today, top Bush officials at the Pentagon claimed they didn't even know about the problems at what is referred to as the Army's "premiere medical facility" until they read the articles in the Washington Post. Then, they started to blame each other:
Top Pentagon officials today blamed a breakdown in leadership for problems with outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and vowed to take quick corrective action.The breakdown in leadership started when the Bush Administration went to war without a plan. Let's keep in mind that Walter Reed is a facility for active duty personnel -- the same people who run Walter Reed are running the war in Iraq. Also, Walter Reed is the flagship of the Army's medical facilities. If this can happen right in the nation's Capitol, what's going on at other facilities?
In a Pentagon briefing, however, the officials said they did not know about the most serious problems until The Washington Post reported on them in a two-part exposé on Sunday and Monday. An "independent review group" is being formed to look into the problems and report back as soon as possible, the officials said.
Meanwhile, in a brazen act of hypocrisy, Virginia's Republican Congressman Tom Davis is making a lot of statements about the Walter Reed scandal:
A committee hearing attended by Army officials two years ago "recorded gut-wrenching testimony from wounded soldiers trapped in a frustrating thicket of Army commands and regulations," Davis said. "Painting and papering won't fix those problems. The issue is the standard of care, not the building code."Tom Davis was the Republican Chair of the Government Affairs Committee in the Republican controlled House with a Republican President heading a Republican administration. But, apparently, there was nothing Republican Tom Davis could do with all that power. So, now, Tom Davis issues tough statements. Big deal. Talk is cheap. Davis is just like his Senate compatriot, Republican Susan Collins, who chaired the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in the Republican-controlled Senate. They like to bitch these days as if they had no ability to change anything. But, Davis and Collins, like all their GOP colleagues, never challenged the Bush Administration. They're responsible for the Iraq War. They're responsible for Walter Reed.
And, one other thing: Top Pentagon officials said they didn't know about what was going on at Walter Reed til they read it in the paper. But, how could that be if "Army officials" were at hearings with "gut-wrenching testimony" two years ago? Seems some people aren't telling the truth here. This story is far from over.
