DENVER-
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday the scandal over conditions for military veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is part of “a pattern of neglect” in the Bush administration.
“This is part of the pattern, though. You see the breach of the compact with our veterans. You see the administration not honoring our promises to our veterans. You see the needs of the victims of Katrina not being met and now you see that these many years later, over five years later, we have still not met the health care needs of our first responders at 9/11. There’s a pattern of neglect here. Democrats will hold this administration accountable,” she said.
She said hearings on the situation at Walter Reed would continue on Monday.
Bush has ordered a review of conditions at military and veteran hospitals.
Revelations about shoddy facilities and wounded soldiers having to wait for treatment have embarrassed the Army and the Bush administration and have sharpened criticism of the Iraq war.
Pelosi said Iraq is embroiled in a civil war and Democrats will continue to oppose any escalation in troops. She said the United States should meet its obligations to its veterans and to focus on the war on terror. She said the real war on terror is in Afghanistan.
“The people know what’s happening in Iraq is a civil war. It’s not the war on terror. That’s why the public support has diminished, that’s why people have lost faith and confidence in the president,” she said.
Pelosi was in Denver to rally Colorado Democrats as the party prepares for a bruising battle that could give Democrats another U.S. Senate seat next year.
University of Denver political scientist Seth Masket said Pelosi is laying the groundwork for what is expected to be a bitter fight for the seat now held by retiring GOP U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard in 2008, leaving another open seat that allowed Democrats to wrest a U.S. Senate seat and a U.S. House seat from Republicans two years ago and another U.S. House seat this year.
“She’s obviously much more powerful than she used to be and she can throw her weight around a bit,” Masket said.
“She also recognizes Colorado as a purple region, a place that is very much in play. It is now one of the priority swing states,” he said.
