Congress, White House AWOL at Intrepid

Despite reports by National Public Radio, Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, who quietly left her position as director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury on Monday, did, indeed, make the Thursday opening of a $56 million center focused on treatment of post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

But the same could not be said for any member of the House or Senate, none of whom could brave the close to 100 degree heat to make the eight-mile trip from the Capitol to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where the opening of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence was held.

My spies at the Intrepid ceremony carefully eyeballed the audience and reported they could not see any senator or representative sitting with the VIPs in a nicely shaded and fan-cooled tent.

The White House evidently had other priorities yesterday too, the Washington Post reported.

Arnold Fisher, chairman of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which ponied up the money for the facility, criticized the lack of White House representation at the ceremony. "These are the very people who decide your fate. . . . We are all here, but where are they?"

Sutton, who, among other things, exchanged hugs with Dr. S. Ward Casscells, former assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, understands a simple fact lost on all the pols: Showing up means far more to the troops than hollow words of support.