Confidential to the Washington press corps (and to so-called journalists everywhere): Hey, babes, this is kind of how the deal is supposed to work

It hasn't been a happy week or two for the various federal agencies who are responsible for (a) our active-duty troops, (b) our wounded military personnel, and (c) our veterans. Chickens have been coming home to roost all over the damn place in an administration that, while perpetrating an unending series of diplomatic and military outrages, has unflinchingly used as one of its principal "covers" its concern for the safety and well-being of our troops.

Over the years that these monsters have been in power we've seen enough crying-in-the-wilderness journalistic reports to have a pretty good idea that no government in U.S. history--and maybe no government anywhere, ever--has so little protected, and in fact so grievously harmed, all three groups. You'd like to think that if the great mass of the American people were to find out about and understand the situation, the formalities of impeachment and conviction of the Bush-Cheney regime could be taken care of in a week or two.

Last Friday we reprinted Al Kamen's "In the Loop" report that day on the Defense Dept.'s recent decision, based on its lawyers' reading of privacy regulations (imagine, the Pentagon suddenly concerned about privacy!), to cut off Veterans Administration doctors' access to computer data they've depended on in treating some of the most seriously damaged nonfatal casualties of the administration's warmongering. As we noted, it was one of those rare occasions when Al didn't even try to be humorous.

In today's column Al reports:

VA Regains Access to Medical Records

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, February 21, 2007; A13

The Defense Department is once again permitting Department of Veterans Affairs doctors to get full medical records they say they need to treat severely injured troops arriving at VA hospitals from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials cut off VA's access on Jan. 23, concluding that privacy concerns and federal regulations barred the department from using the military's Joint Patient Tracking Application system without a formal data-sharing agreement.

VA physicians, who handle troops with brain and other serious injuries at four trauma centers, strongly protested the cutoff, saying that they rely on the tracking system to help them determine the best treatment for the wounded.

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, and ranking Republican Larry E. Craig (Idaho) wrote Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel David S.C. Chu on Feb. 6 that they were "deep[ly] concerned" the VA doctors had been cut off.

The Pentagon on Thursday declined to comment on the situation when we called, and the senators had received no response.

On Friday, VA officials notified the senators that access to the tracking system had been restored. Akaka and Craig said they were pleased the problem had been resolved. So, most likely, is everyone else.

Now, you'd like to think that with the chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on the case, it was going to be rectified--eventually. Probably.

But the fact is that Senators Akaka and Craig sent their letter on Feb. 6, and as of last week clearly weren't getting anywhere. In fact, it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine that it was someone connected to that committee who in frustration was trying to drum up some media attention. After all, for once the problem wasn't with the V.A. but with the DoD, and you don't imagine Pentagon heavyweights worrying overmuch about the folks who oversee the V.A.

Never underestimate the power of public humiliation, however. And it seems to me that, while you're not likely to learn it at the Judy Miller School of Journalism, this is what journalism is about.

I don't know, maybe Al's column had nothing to do with the DoD's turnabout, and it's just a coincidence that the very day it appeared, somebody in the Pentagon suddenly figured how to solve the problem. Whatever, he did what he had to do.

This is a good thing you did, Al. It will be with even greater pride now every time we rip your column off.