Cheney shoots fellow hunter...

Remove all ads!

Here's a roundup of some of the best one-liners...

From here.

 

Damn it, T2! I just got that hostility meter working again and you have to go and overload it. (Seriously, chill.)

Exactly. But the problem is that while Whittington got his (I'd say getting shot in the face was enough ), Cheney won't even admit he made a mistake, instead blaming it all on Whittington. That's what we don't like: the standard of never taking responsibility even if you f*** up big time.

P.S. That fourth one that Hack posted came from the Daily Show. Pretty stupid to try to compare him with Michael Jackson, but it gets a cheap laugh. Their other jokes were better.

 

From Letterman: Quoted Cheney as saying, "Until the Democrats agree to pass Medicare reform legislation, we're going to have to make some tough decisions in regards to our seniors." Now that would have been funnier if it turned out the guy didn't actually require a lot of medical care.

 

Apparently Whittington just had a minor heart attack, on account of birdshot entering his heart, and is still in the ICU.

The "canned quail" comment came from criticisms of a 2003 Cheney bird shoot which evidently made use of 500 farm grown quail that were released from cages and immediately shot (or at least most of them were). Some hunters complained that these were basically living skeet, that the birds didn't have a sporting chance, and that Cheney was giving quail hunting a bad name as a sport played on the ranches of the rich using domestic foul, and from the comfort of nearby SUVs. (Personally, I liked the Jon Stewart coinage "wingless quail-tards"...)

Cheney and his pals probably shouldn't have even gone after second covey while hunters in their group were still dealing with the first. While perhaps Whittington could have been more careful, but I don't think this at absolves Cheney in the slightest.

If Whittington takes a turn for the worse, or God-forbid passes on, I think Cheney will have to step down.

 

No, not that he would be impeached, but if the issue becomes a huge enough distraction for the administration, the GOP strategists might decide that it would be best if someone else were VP.

No, it doesn't seem like a likely scenario... but imagine Cheney dealing with accidental manslaughter charges. Especially after appearing to hide the incident from the press and then blame the victim...

And no, I'm not waiting around bloodthirstily for bad news about the health of the lawyer, 92% approval ratings aside...

 

I think people are making a huge deal over something that is not of national importance. Yes, the Vice President accidentally shot a man, who is now in the hospital. Yes, it was his fault. But just because he didn't have a huge press conference about it the minute it happened is no reason to get angry at him. Accidents happen all of the time. They were concerned more about the man's safety than whether or not the public should know immediately.

I do hope the man gets better, though.

 

Hmm, Cheney shoots a millionaire lawyer... it'd say his approval rating with the general American public just went through the roof .

 

Well, that wascally media certainly thinks it's important. A look around shows the story headlining following sites:

Fox News
CNN
New York Times
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
New York Post (with cartoon of Cheney as Elmer Fudd)
San Francisco Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
ABC News
CBS News
MSNBC
Time Magazine online
Yahoo News
Google News

It's even the third item on BBC international.

D@mn those Fox leftists!

 

I really, really doubt that. I'd expect the initial reaction was more to the effect of "How can we keep this quiet?"

 

Yes, because people don't use their God-given brains enough: Think first, then shoot. It's not shoot first, then think. But the "shoot first, then think" scenario seems to be S.O.P. for this crowd on a number of issues anyway.

 

I never said that it was alright, I just said that people are making way too big of a deal about it. Yes, he did a stupid thing. But it is not so important that people get angry that he didn't tell them right away.

Trust me, I'm no Cheney supporter, I just think everyone should shut up. It was not a murder, nor an intentional shooting. It was an accident, albeit a stupid one. But one accident, which only affects a single family, and is not an extremely unusual case, should not be such a big deal...

 

This should have been a no-nevermind event, but the bungled handling of it has turned it into quite the circus. Marlin Fitzwater, a former Republican White House spokesman, has come out saying that Cheney should have handled things differently, and now the vice president is being urged to make a full statement. The press isn't going to let this go because they think they've been hoodwinked (or maybe are feeling guilty over slacking?) by the VP's office in the past.

All this over a hunting accident. You never know which straw will break the proverbial camel's back.

 

Actually, the news media is going goo-goo over this because it gets huge ratings. Democrats watch because they want to see Cheney fall, republicans because they want him to stand tall, and everyone because the vice-president shot a man. Forget about details like circumstances, blame, and the like That's all just filler.

 

Hmmm... it seem that Cheney's entire acceptance of the blame has silenced the liberal members of SP. Was it really that surprising that Cheney would take total responsibility? I thought his statement were quite credible. I personally do not feel it necessary to issue a statement to the media -- obviously the media takes exception when someone does that and acts like as a collective spoiled child.

Although anytime you're around guns one of Murphy's Laws of Combat should always be etched in your mind: The bullet has the right-of-way.

 

More a matter of stuff to do in RL I'm afraid T2B...

I don't think Cheney's out of the woods yet, as

1) we're still waiting to see how well Whittington recovers;
2) there's still a bunch of "do we really know the whole story" speculation; and
3) the incident has become a metaphor for the "arrogance of power" (moderate WaPo columnist David Ignatius) of Cheney and this administration.

The interview with Hume was pure spin: a softball interview by a stalwart administration sympathizer. How does the initial WH spin that "Cheney did nothing wrong, it was the stupid lawyer's fault, and besides, hunters shoot eachother with 28 gauge shotguns all the time just for yuks" square with this "manly" admission of responsibility? Do you really think Cheney had no hand in the initial spin?

So I'm afraid I can't buy Cheney's two part act: first, I'm taking responsibility for shooting my friend like a man, followed by a blustery (and also "manly") "I have nothing to apologize about to the media or the US people."

Current speculation (from a quick look at the news and some lefty blogs) includes: 1) was Cheney really 30 yards from Whittington if the buckshot had enough velocity to penetrate his heart (thus casting doubt on the description of events)?; 2) why is it that Armstrong said at first that no beer was involved and that people drank Dr. Pepper for lunch when Cheney said he had a beer, and does putting off the police interview until the morning have anything to do with Cheney letting alcohol move out of his system?; 3) there are also rumours of hanky-panky between Cheney and the 4th member of the hunting party (the ambassador to Switzerland). Each of these is tied to the assumption that Cheney waited to alert the police and the press in order to sort out potential embarassments, which really doesn't square with "taking full responsibility."

Of course, none of these things might have happened (or rather, be proven!), Whittington might make a full recovery, and the story might fade. But I think at the very least, this story will stick to Cheney tighter than the aggressive rabbit that chased Jimmy Carter.

 

1.) Whittington is in intensive care 'for privacy reasons only' according to his own doctors, so he's looking pretty good.
2.) I'm honestly not sure where people got the whole 'white house dodges responsability' thing from. This site is the only place I've even seen allusions to it. If someone could post a link to a reputable source (i.e. not a random blog), I would feel better.
3.) The pellet didn't penetrate Whittington's heart, it moved (from a blood blood vessel as I understand it) into his heart.
4.) Cheney and his party did not move in any way to prevent the media from knowing, they just didn't notify them themselves. I understand this perfectly. This goes back to America's belief that 'if you're in office, any office, you have no private life'. This is total . The media had no right that required anyone to ever notify them. It was a curtesy to notify them at all, and not just let them try and piece things together.
5.) I have serious doubts that any of the people speculating on these blogs have any idea what they're talking about.

 

No, no, no. You people don't get it. This is the standard m.o. of the entire administration:

1. Attempt to cover up or keep it quiet with the press.

When that fails,

2. Try to shift blame and responsbility onto someone else.

When that sounds ridiculous,

3. Once you're certain that there will be no major consequences to your actions, take full responsibility.

 

Generally, if you shoot soembody accidentally you let everyone know right away. Sure, Cheney dragging his feet might have been due to grief or shock and could be explainable hundreds of other ways. Nevertheless, if Cheney was drunk and there were a few potentially embarrassing situations going on that needed sorting out, Cheney's actions would make perfect sense. No one is going to impeach Cheney. No one wants to impeach Cheney (at least not for this).

The problem is that there is more than one possible interpretation of events because he delayed notifying everyone. Assuming Cheney had nothing to hide he would have been much better off immediately releasing a statement about the accident. He would have had more credibility and there would have been less room for speculation.

Don't get me wrong, I doubt there was anything tawdry to be found at all (I think it was grief that caused him to delay notifying the press), but Cheney has been in politics long enough to know what happens when you don't let the press know about these types of things right away. I'm amazed he screwed up so badly.

 

Yes. Especially considering that the option was thrown out the window as soon as they started blaming the lawyer. As it is, he still hasn't taken full responsibility, but taking his rightful part of it is enough for me. It's not like I had a particularly high opinion of the man before this.