White House Shoots Foot - New York Times

White House Shoots Foot - New York Times

Editorial - NY Times
White House Shoots Foot

"Let's see. The vice president of the United States accidentally shot someone while bird-hunting on a Texas ranch. It took the White House nearly 24 hours to share that information with the rest of the nation because Dick Cheney thought it would be better for the ranch's owner to give the story to the local newspaper first. And by the way, it was all the victim's fault."

Well, well... Could it be that this was so embarassing that the White House and the vice president's advisors needed more time to spin this in the right direction? If everything was an accident and there were no misdeeds, why is it that the VP didn't have a ton of PR folks spinning this right away? We can guarantee that after the medical team responded to the emergency situation, there was a phone call to the White House. So why the delay in getting the story out?

Is this yet another example of how much disdain that the current administration has for the free press? Just recently President Bush was caught on an open mike saying, "I support the free press. Let's just get them out of the room." This administration has the same disdain and disrespect for the press that Richard Nixon offered us. Nixon went so far as to attempt to intimidate and/or manipulate the reports generated by the Public Broadcasting Corporation. But George W. and comopany merely dismisses the questions of the press, refusing to acknowledge some questions completely. While some reporters and some questions are legitimately so annoying and so outlandish that they deserve to be ignored. However, dismissal of anything except the questions that are endorsed by the prevailing whims is not the manner in which good government is conducted.

"That's their story, and they're sticking with it."

At least until such time as some tidbit of contradictory information is discovered or someone with a conscience or ethics leaks the truth. It does appear that the only methods of getting to the root of things in the Bush administration is to investigate everything offered by the White House in a dogged manner, find someone brave enough to leak at least part of the truth, or wait for someone of authority to give the word that it is in the administration's best interest to leak the information.

By the way, we keep hearing about the DOJ investigating leaks to the New York Times and Washington Post, but whatever happened to the investigation of Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and the connections back to Dick Cheney? Why has this been placed on the back burner? Perhaps Cheney shot his hunting partner to provide an entertaining distraction (it sure is generating a lot of jokes), although the victim of this experience is not finding the incident the least bit entertaining.

"Mr. Cheney was a weekend guest at a ranch owned by Katharine Armstrong, a lobbyist whose family has longstanding ties with the Texas Republican Party and the Bush White House. Mr. Cheney, who is proud of his reputation as an outdoorsman, was gunning for quail when, according to Ms. Armstrong, a 78-year-old lawyer named Henry Whittington got between the vice president and the bird. Mr. Cheney pulled the trigger, forgetting one of the National Rifle Association's top rules for gun safety: 'Be absolutely sure you have identified your target beyond any doubt. Equally important, be aware of the area beyond your target.' Mr. Whittington was sprayed with birdshot."

Hmmm... One would think that associations with lobbyists would be something that Republicans shy away from these days. But let us examine something else that was revealed in the aftermath of this incident. It appears that Vice President Cheney did not have the proper hunting permits and/or stamps for a non-resident of Texas. If the average non-resident of the great state of Texas had been hunting without the proper license, permits or stamps, they would have been arrested, brought to court, fined, and possibly sent to jail. Why didn't this happen in the case of Cheney? Is he above the law? He must be getting special considereation because the entire Bush administration seems to think it is above the law. But he should have been arrested... really... he should have been brought before the court and called to answer just like any of us.

"Fortunately, Mr. Cheney travels with his own medical team. (The vice president suffers from heart problems, although the full details of his physical condition are secret.) Nevertheless, according to the White House, Mr. Cheney was so busy attending to Mr. Whittington that he was unable to inform even President Bush about what had happened for a very long time. His retinue — usually bristling with cellphones, pagers, BlackBerries and satellite phones — was also oddly incommunicado."

Fortunate indeed... for Whittington! I am willing to bet that Mr. Whittington is very happy they were shooting for quail and not deer. But who are we kidding. Cheney was busy attending to Whittington? The Secret Service and the medical team on hand wouldn't have let Cheney anywhere near Whittington. The Secret Service is trained to whisk those they protect away from any incident as quick as possible. The medical team would have respectfully told Cheney to get the hell out of the way (as a former Navy Corpsman, that's what I would have done). The doctors and nurses in the ER would have allowed Cheney unprecedented access, but would have tossed him out of the ER and OR while working on Whittington. Somebody in the entourage would have called SOMEONE in the process of sorting it out. Stating that Dick Cheney was directly involved in tending to Whitttington is an asinine stance to take on the failure to communicate. In all likelihood, somebody was crapping their drawers and trying to figure out the best way to spin the news about the event. But it's awful hard to spin shooting one of your friends. My nose is detecting something that stinks to high heaven... perhaps it's the load of bovine excrement that is being shoveled upon us.

(If you are looking for a bit of fun at the expense of VP Cheney, look here: www.whitehouse.org/administration/dick.asp)