But to use Katrina for an example what would you have expected Brown to do that would have made any difference in the first 48 hours?

What difference in process would you have wanted Walter Reed to do to fix the dry wall in a guesthouse?

Do you really expect someone in the executive office building at the White House to be worrying about the plumbing in every building that the government owns?

The problem at Walter Reed is just not something that can fit into a sound bite and is really rather independent of party politics. Do you really think that there will be people in the Clinton or Obama White House will be micromanaging such things.

The lowest level political appointee in the Army is the Secretary of the Army (Harvey). Everyone below him is career government service. I find it amazing that people on the left want to blame the political appointees but somehow leave the career civil servants out of it. I suspect that many on the left are afraid to attack the bureacracy because most proposals from the left want to expand the bureaucracy.

I also suspect that the propoents of single payer or nationalized health care are happy that the media has not interpreted the story as a failure of civil servants and career military to do their jobs but instead has focused on the politics. Remember, the same people who are losing forms at Walter Reed or being slow in performing physical evaluations would be the people in charge of medicare for all.

His administration, his responsibility. This is the kind of management when your promotions are guided by party affiliation and a desire to reward ‘friends’ instead of appointing the most competent persons available. Besides, don’t try to make it sound as if republicans acted any different against Clinton. This is what Congressional oversight is about, not letting the administration get away with blunders.

I am not trying to excuse the Bush Administration but you have to wonder about the Democrats who want to make the President responsible for every dry wall in the government and for the performance of every low level government workers.

I am beginning to understand why urban school districts change superintendents every year. Those school districts keep thinking that those at the top have much more influence than they really do.

I see Walter Reed problems at Walter Reed as a function of how the government operates (that boring day to day operation that no policy wonk wants to be involved with). Walter Reed is much larger than any other military hospital. Thus, the standard procedures and solution that work at smaller hospitals just do not work. Walter Reed also has a higher turnover than other military hospitals. The combination of the two creates unique problems.

But we know they won’t.

Washington, DC – Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, today responded to recent reports in the Air Force Times stating that soldiers recovering at Walter Reed have been told by officers that they are not to talk to the media, and that CNN and Discovery Channel projects focusing on Defense Department medical facilities have been put on hold by Pentagon officials.

The article also reported that some soldiers recovering at Walter Reed believe that new and unusual orders requiring them to be awake by 6 AM and ready for room inspections at 7 AM may be punitive in nature.

“Last Friday, Secretary of Defense Gates publicly stated that the situation at Walter Reed was, in his words, unacceptable,� Rep. Slaughter said. “The accountability he seemed to embrace was demanded by common decency and welcomed by the public.�

“The only acceptable course of action for our military and civilian leaders to take is to fully and openly address any and all concerns regarding veterans’ facilities nation-wide,â€? Congresswoman Slaughter continued. “Any attempt to silence the very soldiers who brought their own mistreatment to light, or to hide ongoing abuses from the public eye – if such attempts are occurring – would be morally reprehensible. It would be an abdication of one of the most fundamental responsibilities of our government: the protection of those who have fought to protect us.â€?

“Secretary Gates should act on the same principals of accountability and responsibility he so recently advocated and address these reports immediately. As a nation, we need to be honest about the care our veterans are receiving. Their enormous sacrifice demands nothing less.�

Hat tip AMERICAblog

Now, some of the soliders interviewed in the Washington Post piece did give interviews that appeared to be part of an official function such as being photographed in uniform. The soliders probably did not inform their chain of command nor the public affairs people that they were being interviewed.

On another note, the firing of medical hold personnel and the bring in of outsiders is common practice for the Medical Brigade at Walter Reed. The new people (probably reservist) will then spend weeks trying to learn how the place functions. The “120″ new people will probably try to solve the problems the same way they solved them at Fort Bragg or Fort Hood ten years ago and will thus fail.