Columns

Party needs to feel the discomfort

By PHILIP GAILEY
Published February 25, 2007

I have this crazy idea for how Washington can show its support for our troops, who rarely intrude on the city's political and social life.

The White House Correspondents Association will hold its annual dinner next month, bringing together Washington's journalistic and political elite for an incestuous evening of entertainment and partying. The guest of honor is traditionally the president of the United States, who is expected to perform as comedian-in-chief at the black-tie gala. News organizations try to outdo each other with their celebrity guests, usually big-name actors and entertainers. No doubt Britney Spears already has received more than one invitation.

As in past years, the program will include a brief salute to our troops, nothing, mind you, to dampen the fun and frivolity of the evening. I think our soldiers deserve better. If the journalists who plan the dinner really want to show their appreciation for our fighting men and women, they should ask news organizations to tear up their celebrity guest lists - yes, dis-invite the Hollywood swells - and extend invitations to some of the hundreds of soldiers recovering from their wounds at nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Let them be the real guests of honor. And let their presence remind everyone that presidential decisions have consequences, as does the press' failure to hold government accountable.

When he steps up to the speaker's dais, let President Bush survey an audience of the powerful sharing an evening, however uncomfortably, with the powerless, the soldiers badly wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let him see amputees in wheelchairs, and let him look at the faces of the physically disfigured and psychologically damaged, victims of snipers and roadside bombs in Iraq.

Make room on the program for some of the soldiers to speak about the disgraceful treatment they have endured as outpatients on the Walter Reed compound where some of them live in physical squalor - in rooms with leaky pipes, holes in the ceiling, mold in the carpets, a broken elevator and cockroaches and rats. Let them tell how they are warehoused for as long as 18 months while the military tries to decide whether to discharge them or return them to active duty.

Let them speak about how amputees and patients on heavy drug regimens are expected to report for 7 a.m. formation, even in the snow. And let someone mention the soldier who had to show his Purple Heart in order to get a new uniform (his was ripped off by medics trying to save his life) as an outpatient.

And let them tell of how military bureaucrats add insult to injury by looking for excuses to deny or reduce the disability pay that wounded soldiers are counting on when they leave the military.

The war wounded at Walter Reed, about 5 miles from the White House and the U.S. Capitol, have been out of sight too long. They would still be invisible were it not for a four-month investigation by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull that exposed bureaucratic contempt and callous neglect of patients living on the Walter Reed compound.

The scandal is not the care soldiers receive at Walter Reed's gleaming hospital - it is first-rate, by most accounts. The scandal is what awaits the wounded once they are moved from the hospital into out-patient housing in nearby buildings, places members of Congress apparently never visit. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers expressed shock and anger and promised an investigation. It shouldn't be limited to Walter Reed.

Most of us have no personal connection to the war. We don't fully appreciate the sacrifices our troops and their families make, or the hardships they bear. That's why the idea of seeing wounded soldiers mixing with their commander in chief, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and journalists at the White House correspondents dinner appeals to me.

I know, it would be a real downer. It would make for an awkward evening, especially for President Bush, who is supposed to poke fun at himself and the press. And, of course, news organizations would have to decide whether to invite amputees and other disfigured soldiers to the lavish parties they host in hotel suites after the dinner.

Not to worry - it's not going to happen. After all, the White House correspondents group is still trying to make amends for last year's controversial performance by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, who zinged President Bush with some edgy remarks that some reporters thought crossed the line.

This year the association is taking no chances. It has booked impersonator Rich Little as the evening's entertainment.

[Last modified February 24, 2007, 22:05:06]