Young faces fury in vets' scandal

[dogday]

WASHINGTON - Rep. C.W. Bill Young and his wife, Beverly, have spent hundreds of hours helping wounded soldiers and Marines. They've provided money and gifts and even changed a law so that wounded soldiers would not have to pay for their hospital meals.

But on a day when an Army general in charge of Walter Reed Army Medical Center lost his job because of outrage over shoddy conditions, the Youngs were brought into the growing controversy. In the blogosphere and in the online journal Slate, people asked whether the Indian Shores Republican had done enough.

The questions were prompted by a Washington Post story Thursday that said Young stopped visiting the wounded in 2004 at Walter Reed because he was frustrated with the response to his complaints about poor medical care.

Daniel Politi, a Slate columnist, wrote that he "wonders why Rep. Young didn't tell his colleagues in Congress about these frustrations. If he did, why didn't they do anything?" Many people posted similar comments on the Buzz, a St. Petersburg Times political blog.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/02/Worldandnation/Young_faces_fury_in_v.shtml