Michelle Malkin: She's not just an idiot, she's an idiot.

Predictably, ignorant right-wing screech harpy Michelle Malkin uses the mistreatment of troops at Walter Reed hospital as a political prop to take a swipe at government-run health care:

Newsflash: Government-run health care sucks

The Washington Post is back today with another story about the pitfalls of the military health care system. Like I said when the WaPo series was launched, these failures are damnable--and nothing new. David Bernstein at The Volokh Conspiracy adds:

If private companies had mismanaged outpatient care for veterans the way the V.A. system has, there would be strong calls from all the usual quarters for a government takeover, and proclamations of how we can't trust "greedy" for-profit companies to take care of veterans. Funny how this thought process doesn't seem to work in reverse, except among "free market ideologues," who have been criticizing the V.A. for years.

Will the Bush-bashers join with free-market critics to effect real change and help the troops who need and deserve better care?

We'll see.

Luckily, the good folks at Crooks and Liars are all over that fairy tale:

It's getting hard to keep track of all the times Malkin is wrong on a story and now she adds to her pile. She writes: Newsflash: Government-run health care sucks…

Did she miss the memo from C&L: BREAKING: Did Privatization at Walter Reed Put Troops at Risk?

The memorandum “describes how the Army’s decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of ‘highly skilled and experienced personnel,’” the committee’s letter states. “According to multiple sources, the decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support personnel at Walter Reed.”

The letter said the Defense Department “systemically” tried to replace federal workers at Walter Reed with private companies for facilities management, patient care and guard duty – a process that began in 2000.”

I wouldn't bother waiting for a correction or retraction. That's not how Michelle works.