There are any number of interesting angles to the story surrounding Cheney’s hunting incident, but I still think the one that raises the most questions is about the delay in public notification. Given what we know, it almost seems as if the White House was never going to tell anyone that the Vice President shot someone.
The more than 18-hour delay in news emerging that the Vice President of the United States had shot a man, sending him to an intensive care unit with his wounds, grew even more curious late Sunday. E&P has learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occured and called Vice President Cheney’s office for confirmation.
The confirmation was made but there was no indication whether the Vice President’s office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting if the reporter, Jaime Powell of the Corpus Christ Caller-Times, had not received word from the ranch owner.
One of Powell’s colleagues at paper, Beth Francesco, told E&P that Powell had built up a strong source relationship with the prominent ranch owner, Katharine Armstrong, which led to the tip. Powell is chief political reporter for the paper and also covers the area where the ranch is located south of Sarita.
Armstrong called the paper Sunday morning looking for Powell, who was not at work. When they did talk, Armstrong revealed the shooting of prominent Austin attorney Harry Whittington, who is now in stable condition in a hospital. Powell then called Cheney’s office for the confirmation around midday. The newspaper broke the story at mid-afternoon — not a word about it had appeared before then.
Asked if the information would have ever come out if Armstrong hadn’t called her friend in the local media, Cheney’s office “would not comment.”
This seems more than a little odd. As Josh asked, “The vice president shoots someone seriously enough to require ICU treatment in the hospital and the White House doesn’t see fit to make a public announcement?”
The answer, apparently, is yes.
In this case, there was a very tight lid on the information. The Secret Service notified the local sheriff’s office and top White House officials the day of the shooting, but no one else — outside the staff at the hospital that treated Whittington — knew about the incident.
At this point, there’s been no explanation for the delay.
Francesco, at the Corpus Christi paper, said she felt it was a bit odd that her newsroom had not received any information about the shooting since “we often call law enforcement in area, even on weekends. We checked in and didn’t hear anything about it.”
While E&P was first to raise the question about the delay Sunday afternoon, Frank James, reporter in the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau, put his how spin on it later in the day, asking, “How is it that Vice President Cheney can shoot a man, albeit accidentally, on Saturday during a hunting trip and the American public not be informed of it until today?”
Indeed, others raised questions as well. “There was no immediate reason given as to why the incident wasn’t reported until Sunday,” The Dallas Morning News observed. “The sheriff’s office in Kenedy County did not respond to phone calls Sunday.” […]
The delay in announcing the shooting “will likely be the main question asked of the White House about the apparent accidental shooting of a 78-year-old man during a Texas hunting trip by the vice president,” the Tribune’s James wrote on the Washington bureau’s blog at the newspaper’s site.
“When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance,” James noted, “that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?”
The White House’s reputation for preferring secrecy to sunlight is well-established, but there’s no reason to hide an accident. I imagine there’s a temptation to spare Cheney some embarrassment, but the Bush gang will need a better excuse than this.
It’s hardly unreasonable, given the circumstances, to wonder when the phrase “cover up” will be taken seriously.