When the Gingrich Revolutionaries came in, one of the first things they did was begin to de-fund the VA.

That's continued unabated ever since, and with a dozen years of underfunded operations, the system is now obviously broken.

Bush can fire anyone he likes, from the head of Walter Reed to the Secretary of the Army, it doesn't change who he is, what he stands for and what the conservatives have wroght upon America.

This is the conservative "Culture of life": a culture of miserable, unappreciated, life lived on bended knee seriving the corporate socialists who own your government.

Veterans and families owe thanks to the Republicans who bought into Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff's scheme to reduce the federal government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." It seems Walter Reed was contracted out to the lowest bidder. The President of the contracting company is associated with -- Halliburton!

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wants to ask Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman about a contract to manage the medical center awarded to a company that had documented troubles fulfilling a government contract to deliver ice to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Walter Reed awarded a five-year, $120 million contract to IAP Worldwide Services for base operation support services, according to the letter. That company is tied to a former senior official of Halliburton, which has won millions of dollars in U.S. contracts for providing support services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vice President Dick Cheney served as Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 to 2000.

Boy, it's a good thing Waxman is on the job. I wonder who was in charge of oversight when Salon broke this story in 2004?  This is another shame for Tom Davis.

Speaking of Davis, what is his latest opinion on contracting out government services, crippling the agencies and hemorrhaging our money for huge CEO salaries and overhead and cost-plus that the government doesn't pay when they do it themselves? Last week he said the contractors shouldn't be audited by the government.  In fact, the government should contract out auditing! This is after a WaPo series on these audit failures  after Katrina and Iraq debacles by contractors.

as Martha Stewart says, for Tom Davis to run for the Senate.  He looks vulnerable, and should be more vulnerable if Waxman does a good thorough job.

I definitely think he's more beatable than John Warner.

Waxman says since the Walter Reed contract negotiations to privatize the facility began - with the blessing of Davis - in 2004, staff was reduced from 300 to 60, and a new GAO report today says delays in processing meant the number of claims over 6 months late almost doubled, and processing time increased about 15%.  http://www.gao.gov/n...

The truth is that the entire Walter Reed scandal is just another manifestation of the same failure of the conservative theory of (non)governance that peeked from the curtain over Katrina and over the odious use of torture and renditions, not to mention the incompetences of the Iraq War.

These disasters are all of a piece, and should be so presented to the public over and over. And, don't forget, the head of the fish stinks first, Mr. Bush.

From Think Progress:  http://thinkprogress...

Our national media embarrassment was again on full display on Friday. Both MSNBC and Fox News devoted more coverage to Anna Nicole Smith - three weeks after her death on Feb. 8 - than they did to the multiple developments involving the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed military hospital.  The most lop-sided coverage by far was aired by Fox News, which featured only 10 references to Walter Reed compared to 121 of Anna Nicole - roughly 12 times the coverage.  MSNBC featured 84 references to Walter Reed and 96 to Anna Nicole.