I never had much respect for Charles Schumer. He always seemed to me a political slickster with far more interest in power than anything else. He also seemed completely incapable of thinking beyond the most traditional, reified liberalism.
But I had no idea he was such a contemptible fake he would feign horror at the treatment of our veterans at Walter Reed without once having visited the hospital during the entire Iraq War. This interchange with Imus is beyond belief.
(He claims, vaguely, to have been there before the war, but I suspect he’s lying about that too.)
I think the old Joseph Welch words are perfect for Schumer: “Have you no shame, sir?”
Bob Dole once remarked that the most dangerous place in Washington was the space between Chuck Schumer and a TV camera.
I have not been able to listen to Imus in years, so I missed that. Glad I did.
But that is a good point…the Senate is always complaining that Bush does not let them do more, that he hogs everything and they don’t get enough say in things..so where were they and their oversight? After all these men and their families are their constituents too.
My Dad died in a VA hospital in August 1980 and the conditions were pretty damn sad, in fact much worse than today..but no one blamed Jimmy Carter.
I suppose we can blame bureaucratic inertia as much as anything.
And I was glad to see the Secretary of Defence Gates did not spend a lot of time making excuses, he just fired people and said they would take care of it.
Hopefully in the next few months we will see an improvement. If not, more heads should roll.
Who knows? Maybe Chucky will climb down off his soap box and pay the soldiers a visit. And all those antiwar people who are supposedly upset about the situation might ask their friends at Code Pink to lay off harrassing the soldiers and families there at Walter Reed. They have a habit of making pests of themselves I hear.
I have not been able to listen to Imus in years, so I missed that. Glad I did.
But that is a good point…the Senate is always complaining that Bush does not let them do more, that he hogs everything and they don’t get enough say in things..so where were they and their oversight? After all these men and their families are their constituents too.
My Dad died in a VA hospital in August 1980 and the conditions were pretty damn sad, in fact much worse than today..but no one blamed Jimmy Carter.
I suppose we can blame bureaucratic inertia as much as anything.
And I was glad to see the Secretary of Defence Gates did not spend a lot of time making excuses, he just fired people and said they would take care of it.
Hopefully in the next few months we will see an improvement. If not, more heads should roll.
Who knows? Maybe Chucky will climb down off his soap box and pay the soldiers a visit. And all those antiwar people who are supposedly upset about the situation might ask their friends at Code Pink to lay off harrassing the soldiers and families there at Walter Reed. They have a habit of making pests of themselves I hear.
I have no idea why that double posted. I feel like a double mint twin.
Reified beans?
Schumer looks like a salesman in a schlock shop in Brooklyn but, aside from being a lens whore, he’s likely little different than the typical dud legislator. VA has been called a disgrace for as long as I can remember.
Ah, a Schumer snack–reified beans, soggy machos, and plenty of hell-i’ll-pin-ya peppers.
“Have you no shame, sir?”
The is the answer is ‘no’ But, even more worrying is that I suspect he is proud of his lack of shame.
Well Chiukie is only the tip of the iceberg here. I watched This Week and Martha Radditz was apoplctic about Walter Reed and howled about Bush having visited Walter Reed often, etc. But she covers the White House and obviously had made many a trip over there herself. This hysterical press outrage about a set of problems they all knew about for years is beyond ridiculous. Yet large segments of the public no longer simply swallow this stuff.
I believe that the rest of Joseph Welsh’s “[h]ave you no shame… .” was the, also appropriate, “Sir, have you no sense of decency?” This shameful Schumer episode coming on the heels of Gore’s exposure as a “do as I say and not as I do” profligate user of energy, makes Messrs. Gore and Schumer the Cohn and Shine of hypocrisy.
There are 99 other Senators. Most of whom I’m sure like Schumer haven’t visited Walter Reed or any other military medical facility recently.
Schumer is the brightest of the Dems. He is a huge thorn in the side of the GOP. But, he is a known quantity.
Behold however Don Imus, a Martian of incoherence, blubber; an egotistical boor
of the first magnitude surrounded by Bronx cavedwellers providing the suck up commentary you might hear from New York hot dog sellers.
Barry:
Bush did visit many times, but Walter Reed is a big place. And I am sure the reporters know it.
The thing is until the Washington Post did this story this did not seem to be high on anyone’s agenda. At least the Bush administration has made some efforts to deal with the situation…while everyone else just puts on this show for us all.
I’m neither a fan of that “egotistical boor”, Don Imus, nor of that egotistical and boorish, Chuck Schumer, but the record is clear that the so-called, “brightest of Senate Dems” was bested and exposed as a fraud by that “Martian of incoherence”.
Unfortunately, just another display of politics as usual. I imagine that a majority of the Representatives and Senators have not bothered to visit any of the Veterans Hospitals. Too much interference with their money making campaigns.
Cynical… you bet!
A friend of mine’s father contracted polio while serving in Korea. They brought him home, treated him for a while, then he was discharged. Taken to the lobby of the VA hospital and left there. Not even so much as a pair of crutches so he could get to the bottom of the steps and to his wife’s car. She had to go rent a set.
He does not recall anyone blaming Truman for that.
I’m not surprised. Schumer’s always struck me as the cheapest sort of political thug. Remember, this is the man whose two staffers stole Michael Steele’s credit report –a felony, IIRC– yet Schumer claimed to have no knowledge of the incident. Yeah, and Capt. Renault was shocked to find gambling going on in Rick’s Cafe, too.
After reading the above comment about the Schumer staff stealing Michael Steele’s credit report, I googled the matter to remind myself of the details. I thought other readers might also be interested in the Schumer staff’s Watergate-cloning “dirty tricks” campaign.
A link to Michelle Malkin’s posting about this follows. I hope this way of providing the link works. It’s new to me.
Sorry, I’ll try again:
http://www.michellemalkin.com/archives/003593.htm
fred let me try:
link
Ah, you are strong in the ways of the Force, young Jedi.
ripcic has it right. “Bob Dole once remarked that the most dangerous place in Washington was the space between Chuck Schumer and a TV camera.”
He has a big mouth with a set of standard lines. If anybody listens to what he says over time, they would know he is only a blowhard. Sorry to disagree, jedrury.
What most fail to realize is that Walter Reed is scheduled to close in 2011. The fact that the facility has been starved for investment is partially tied to this.
My understanding is that injured military personnel have received very good, in fact excellent, medical care on the front end – and that includes at Walter Reed.
Many of the problems come later in the process when our injured soldiers move into the VA system. It is a glaring argument to reject what the Dems will call for – nationalized, state-run healthcare. I cringe at the thought. There are many other market oriented ideas that should be tried.
Back on track, Schumer has no shame – and most likely no conscience.