Eugene Robinson: Unaccountably Called to Account

[maddezmom]

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, March 6, 2007; Page A19

So this is what accountability looks, sounds and feels like. It's been so long -- since George W. Bush moved into the White House -- that we hardly recognize what used to be a commonplace phenomenon, as much a part of Washington's behavioral DNA as megalomania and mendacity.

Imagine how surprised Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey must have been when Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired him last week over the shocking neglect of injured veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Gates, who cut his teeth in George Bush the Elder's administration, obviously didn't get the memo about how blatant malfeasance is handled by George Bush the Younger's crew.

Remember what happened to George Tenet (the former CIA director who said it was a "slam-dunk" that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction), Gen. Tommy Franks (who led the Iraq invasion, making decisions that allowed the insurgency to form) and Paul Bremer (who botched the Iraq occupation, allowing the insurgency to grow)? Bush gave them all the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Harvey would have had every right to expect the usual tut-tut from the White House. The commander of Walter Reed, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, had already fallen on his sword. Never mind that Weightman had been in charge only since August, which means he inherited the situation. The post commander was resigning, and that should have been enough. Harvey needed an interim director to run Walter Reed, so he turned to the medical center's former commander, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, on whose watch the shabby treatment of outpatient vets became standard practice.


more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501195.html

[izzie]

1. Sort of fun to see every one circle Bush's butt.

Trouble in that people who see their power go do odd things.