Big, black headlines in today's Pensacola News Journal tell the tale: Congressman Jeff Miller (R-Northwest Florida), who's always bragging on how he looks out for the military veterans --
has been to Walter Reed Medical Center many times over the past several years to visit wounded constituents and other veterans... . But he never witnessed and never was told about the substandard living conditions and poor treatment that recovering service members experienced as outpatients living at the medical center's Washington campus.... .You see, he signs up only for the luxury tour:
Miller said that when members of Congress tour Walter Reed, they typically get special treatment.Okay, so maybe Miller was ignorant. But other congressmen did know. According to journalist Larry Wheeler's report:
"It would not surprise me if there were deficiencies, that the Army would not highlight those to a member of Congress," Miller said.
"Some lawmakers did know about the obstacles that wounded vets faced.Still, the incumbent congressman for Northwest Florida tells the PNJ, "I don't think it's an issue of congressional oversight."
Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, a St. Petersburg Republican and former chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said he personally told Walter Reed commanders of his concerns about poor patient care.
And Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, chaired a hearing of the House Government Reform Committee in February 2005 on treatment problems affecting wounded Guard members and reservists.
Good grief! You have to wonder what, exactly, Jeff Miller thinks he's good for? He votes the Bush party line so mindlessly you could send a Blackberry in his place. He waltzes through Walter Reed like airhead-royalty seeing nothing, asking no questions -- even though he knows he's getting a snow-job. He's enacted no new laws of substance. And he has no pull with anyone in his own party, much less the Democrats.
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