Dead-Eye Dick is nowhere to be found. He hasn’t spoken to the press or the public since The Incident.
That is beyond strange, people. No politician in my memory would have behaved like this. Any politician in my memory would have hustled to be sure his version of what happened was the first version the press heard. If he wasn’t able to get in front of cameras himself, he would have had a spokesperson hold a press conference asap. The politician or his surrogates might have been lying, but he certainly wouldn’t have gone into hiding without issuing a statement.
Why isn’t Dick Cheney on TV right now?
The vice president of the United States shoots someone in a hunting accident and rather than immediately come clean to the public, his office keeps it a secret for almost a whole day. Even then, it’s only to confirm a report in a local paper.
And still from the White House, no details, no apologies, and no Cheney.
The excuses: The veep’s first concern was getting medical help for Mr. Whittington. What, did the veep assist in surgery? I can undetstand waiting for a doctor’s prognosis, but by all accounts there was a prognosis late Saturday afternoon. Effects of a shotgun blast aren’t all that hard to diagnose, I suspect.
The other excuse: The White House was waiting to get more information. Lordy, no wonder they couldn’t deal with levee breaks. This story is (I assume) simple: There was an accident. The Vice President accidently shot his friend while hunting. The friend will be fine. The veep is real sorry. You can throw in the Official Story — the friend stepped into the veep’s line of fire. If more details come to light we will share them.
Yet something as simple as a hunting accident seems to have confounded them. The White House is struggling just to get its story straight about who knew what, when; and who told what to whom. The veep cannot pull himself together to even issue a statement. This is exceeding strange.
No response is the best Rove strategy under the circumstances. Say nothing, wait for those Like Michael Isakoff to “look under the hood” and find the smoking gun before Trickie Dickie (remember his comment in the VP debate about Edwards alleged absences in Congressional votes) speaks about “The Incident.” (*see Chapaquidick for an historical precedent)
No politician in our memory would have behaved like this. To disappear. Then again no politician in recent memory had Diebold Corp. and its paperless hackable voting machines to count on).
Go into hiding. It works for Osama. His office keeps it a secret for almost a whole day, and now 48 into the event, no response. Just what did the Sjheriff’s department conclude?
Mr. Wittington “stepped into the vp’s line of fire,” of quail, because, Mr. Wittington like pigs, can fly.
This is not so strange for this administration.
Frank in Miami contributed to this report.
Ifeel a ‘Terror Alert’ coming on.
uh, hello, it’s because we’re not worthy of an explanation.
“Big Time” was stumblng, knockdown drunk when this happened. Secret Service was ordered to take him to Vegas where high-priced hookers serviced him until he sobered up.
Rove filmed the whole Vegas episode so that he can force Cheney our when the time comes…..
Well, you gotta better explanation?
A coward is a coward and no amount of $$$$ or Power can change that.
I read Cheney had an out-of-state license but not a $7.00 “stamp” to hunt birds in TX. But the White House said a check is on the way to get one. Do you think it would be smart to issue him one after shooting someone and not telling anyone? Where’s Rove when you need an immediate spin? Probably hunting cows on someone’s farm in Wyoming.
I think Cornelius Vanderbilt expressed it best: The public be damned.
You’re all being insensitive to Dick. The poor man is probably suffering from PTSD. Put yourselves in Dick’s shoes and think how terrible it must be to blow off half of someone’s head at close range with a shotgun. Maybe a trained killer would be out making speechs, but a tender guy like Cheney needs time and counseling to recover from the horror of the act he has commited. Don’t judge him so harshly..pray for him.
Swami….hahaha…and now we learn that he did it with an Italian 28 Gauge Shotgun….wow-o-wow. I’m surprised he doesnt go hunting with a Gatlin Gun….hahahaha
My favorite joke so far comes from Jimmy Kimmel, of all people:
“You know what they say, if Dick Cheney comes out of his hole and shoots an old man in the face, six more weeks of winter.”
Questions, questions, questions. Where was the law enforcement investigation that any other citizen would experience after a hunting accident? Were hunting licenses all in order? (Sounds like no.) Had either the victim or shooter been drinking? (Most of us are betting yes.) Jeepers, Barney Fife would’ve stepped up and asked the right questions if this had happened in Mayberry. (But then, in Mayberry no one ever let crazy-eyed Floyd have a gun, or elected the town drunk mayor.)
Oh, and in answer to maha’s original question, Dick’s in an undisclosed location, of course.
We were told today that the delay in informing the public about what happened is because the VP’s office was attending to Whittington’s medical needs. Since the doctors do that, all that was needed was one person to make two or three calls, if that.
Just what were the other staffers doing besides figuring out how to spin the story?
Josh Marshall notes that Karl Rove seemed to be apprised of the situation within about 90 minutes and was quickly involved.
This story is not about a dumb shooting accident; it’s about business as usual: spin everything! Stonewall! Get your stories straight! Control the message! And if you can, blame the other guy!
The last three days have been the Bush Administration modus operandi in miniature. A simple admission of stupidity and a contrite statement from Cheney about a dumb accident would have sufficed.
i was reading the comments over at the Huffington post on this Cheney story and had tears of laughter from the lampooning Cheney got. One comment I thought was particularly funny was : ” Now Cheney can walk into any macho bar, order a stiff drink and then say, I once shot a man”
The delay in reporting was to make sure that no one would know Cheney’s blood alcohol level. That’s clear. Nothing else I have seen is clear at all. Please tell me actually what happened. Now, I learn, they were not hunting with just guns, but also cars. How does that fit in with Whittington “just appearing” in the gun sights? This is just the damnest thing. It makes no sense.
Dick is in seclusion, because he’s all broken up about shooting a man. See, he wasn’t in the military like many men his age, and had “better things to do” than go off to where men were being shot at. So it’s all new to him. Besides, it was a contributor! I mean, shooting a peasant he could probably deal with, but a rich Republican? He must be devastated.
I believe I have stumbled across the real reasons for the delay.
I detailed my account on my Blog indepth in the entry entitled: Tale of the Privileged citizen @ http://inademocracysilenceispermission.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=237774
Vice-president Dick Cheney has violated two Texas laws, possibly even Federal Law.
Small violations on the face of it but, I do believe the Secret Service covered up for the VP until they could gain the upper hand.
Maha asked where is Cheney?
Well, he is not in jail and wasn’t even questioned as most people would be–think about that one! What if it had been you, the reader??
Cheney had his “old” buddy from Wyoming trotting out for him today. Former Senator Alan Simpson, Republican from Wyoming was on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” today, 2/13/06. Of course, the former Senator was blaming Whittington. He said that Harry didn’t announce when he was coming from behind, “I’m here”. What kind of poppycock is that? Simpson said that people don’t like Cheney and are going to be making jokes about him and saying all kinds of things about him and that they blame him for the war in Iraq. No wonder the guy is “Former” Senator. He was playing the role requested of him by the Mean Machine–blame the patient, Whittington, and blame the Democrats. He said that Cheney is a very skilled hunter!! I doubt if Harry Whittington would agree with that insane statement.
I think that Cheney had drinks for lunch and probably early cocktails since the shooting occurred at approx 5:30PM Central on Saturday, 2/11/06
There is something karmic in this: ‘ don’t be afraid of Dick Cheney. He is an incompetent old fart that can’t even shoot straight. New meme for our side- there’s nothing to be afraid of’
Make him a joke, nothing defangs like ridicule.
Same old story from this hostile administration. They must of been trying to time this + another event of concern. Being paranoid of everything this administration flips around the hotplate. This week will tell. Or maybee ole Dick was drinking while hunting. He sure dont have any fear of his boss. The righties still seem to log that Gore was the one out of line.
As I view the reactions to this deadly serious, and telling incident; Jay Leno, Stewart, the cartoons,the Dowd column that is inevitable, and all the blogs, and their comments, I keep thinking of that Roger Waters CD. It was called Amused to Death. That’s what we get..amusements.
How about a simple reason he is not talking. The guy is crazy. Literally. Not in the funny Uncle sense, but crazy, as in the terrfying kind.
Alan Simson is right…people are going after Cheney because they know he was one of the main instigators of the Iraq War. Many of us will see this as an opportunity to discredit one of our nation’s leading war-mongers. If the shot fired by Cheney helps shorten the occupation of Iraq it will have served a good purpose.
It apparent to me that there is more to Cheney story which we need to know about for example. Why did he not make sure his license was valid. Had he been drinking and how much.? Was his gun registered? Why did he not talk to the authorities what is he hiding? The number of hours when the incident happen and when it was reported. When did Bush know and when did he know it?