The shot heard round the world

February 17, 2006

If you listen closely, you can almost hear the Cheney-shoots-a-guy balloon lose its air. Going over today’s papers, it reads like a wrap-up on a controversy that won’t make any headlines at all next week.

For one thing, the local law enforcement investigation is now officially over.

The sheriff’s department responsible for investigating Vice President Cheney’s shooting of a Texas lawyer has closed its investigation and decided no criminal charges are warranted, according to a report released Thursday.

The Kenedy County Sheriff’s Department report largely corroborates the accounts of the shooting given by Cheney and Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the 50,000-acre ranch where the incident occurred. Cheney shot Harry Whittington, 78, a prominent Austin lawyer, while hunting quail last Saturday afternoon.

The report, written by Chief Deputy Gilbert San Miguel Jr., quotes Cheney and Whittington as saying the shooting was an accident. They said no one was drinking alcohol during the hunt, according to the report.

Miguel added, “There will be no further action taken.”

And what about the president? Bush said yesterday that he “thought the Vice President handled the issue just fine.” He also described Cheney’s appearance on Fox News as “powerful” (twice). Bush concluded, “I’m satisfied with the explanation he gave.”

There are, to be sure, several relevant loose ends. Neither Cheney nor anyone at the White House has offered a reasonable explanation for why the VP deputized ranch owner Katharine Armstrong as his semi-official spokesperson. The description of what role, if any, alcohol may have played on Saturday remains incomplete. The reasoning for the delay in speaking to local law enforcement and for postponing a public announcement on the incident is still lacking.

But one quickly gets the sense that reporters and the political world have had their fun and are preparing to move on. It’s a shame; some of the lingering questions still deserve answers.

Since you bring this up first this morning:

Kate O’Beirne of the National Review was on Hardball last night (yes, I know you think I shouldn’t watch Chris Matthews) and revealed an interesting bit of information. I wish the transcript was up to link, but they seem to be a day behind.

Kate said that the reason the hunting party didn’t want to call the media Saturday night was that there were too many versions of the events.

Wow! Too many versions. Since when has it been good police work to allow the participants of an incident to work out one story before they talk to the police. The sheriff’s department didn’t even talk to Harry Whittington before Dick Cheney got to him and told him the ‘correct’ version.

So here is Kate, whom I assume got this from members of the hunting party (probably Dick himself) saying that there were too many versions to tell the media on Saturday, and the (liberal) media would go all hysterical if they got more than one version of the story, so the hunting party decided to sit on the story until Sunday.

And at the same time, make work easier for the Kenedy County Sheriff’s Department.

And conservatives think we are making too much of this story!

  • it may be the case that lingering questions still need answers, but this incident has not gotten the democratic party or any democratic candidate a single vote. Eyes on the prize my friend, let’s get back to talking about how our president has broken the law with illegal wiretaps, how he has spent billions of hard earned taxpayer dollars on propaganda, and how his healthcare plan is bad for everyone, except the wealthy and the healthy. Oh there’s so much more there, let’s get back to fighting battles that we are already winning in the court of public opinion, and fighting them hard.

  • Texas, as do all American political units, requires physicians to report gun shot wounds. So the report to the law-enforcement authorities of Vice President Cheney’s unfortunate, and possibly tragic, hunting accident was in train the moment that Squire Whittington was seen by a doctor. Quite properly, the first and over-riding priority was to get the wounded victim of the accident to an appropriate source of medical care. I wonder that the products of the American Public School Systems have not considered this basic fact of law when commenting on this site. The attempt to demonize the Vice President by engaging in malicious and vain speculations was fated to fail. THAT DOG WON’T HUNT!

  • Dunno, CB…

    If Peggy Noonan is writing that Cheney is replaceable, I would assume that’s the conventional wisdom in many of the salons of the DC right wing…

    Cheney has transgressed:
    – he has made it obvious to the press once and for all that he is unaccountable to the President…
    – he is now an object of ridicule to the public and scrutiny to the press…this is the guy who operated with impunity under the radar…

    Cheney would never be forced to resign on the spot (that is, unless Whittington kicked tomorrow)…but I’m thinking he will resign for health-related reasons by late summer – just in time for a new VP rollout during the fall campaigns…

  • I agree with natan. It’s been fun to speculate about the shooting incident for a week, but there are more pressing and important matters to focus on. It’ll be nice to bring up again when Deadeye Dick addresses the NRA or attempts to ridicule Democrats when they’re hunting.

    But just for fun: I wonder what they offered Harry Whittington to get him to corroborate. Getting shot in the face is a pretty big deal, and I’d certainly hold a grudge. I’m wondering how soon there will be a payoff. Will Whittington be doing more legal work for the GOP? Will his family members be awarded federal contracts for whatever it is they do or lucrative lobbying positions? It’s hard to imagine taking a load of birdshot for the team without getting something in return.

  • There is one thing that will bring the air back into the balloon.

    And that is…

    If the air flows out of the Harry Whittington once and forever…

    That… and that only… will cause this thing to be properly investigated.

  • koreyel’s comment brings something something to mind. At Harry Whittington’s age does anyone doubt that this incident has effectively ended his life. A traumatic incident at age 78 is likely to be the beginning of the end for Mr. Whittington.

  • As far as CB’s comment about “moving on” is concerned, Jon Stewart noted last night that all Fox News did yesterday (the day after the Cheney interview) was keep saying, over and over, that “it’s time to move on.” Not to all the political scandals we want the media to look at, but stories like that Entwistle true crime story.

    This was clearly the Number One Talking Point of the Day from Roger Ailes, and everyone else in the media ran with it from there.

    We’ll never know the truth of this because the media just doesn’t care enough. (I think Lance’s interesting discovery about the “versions” is proof we’ll never know.) Yes, there are plenty of important stories out there that deserve attention. But if Roger Ailes is so adamant about “moving on,” then that makes me want to linger a while longer.

  • Jim B

    You have not the mental capacity to dabate waumpuscat so you call upon all to ignore him. This proves that, very occasionally, you can make a good decision.

    hand over ears and all together now
    “la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la……………………………………………

    psst… shiny side out.

  • Yet another illustration of why the Dems will never get anywhere without:

    • Message discipline. (Once this story came out there needed to be a single line taken by all Dem spokespeople. And there needs to be a deep bench of Dem pundits all pushing the same line as well.)

    • Their own media to push the story. (Blogs and Air America aren’t enough. It needs national TV a la Fox News.)

    This is the way it works, people. IOKIYAR works because the Republicans have figured out the above two points, and the Dems haven’t.

  • bogie:

    waumpuscat didn’t say anything to be argued, just that it was top priority to get whittington to the hospital. Duh! He’s trolling by implying that somehow the administration communications people (in DC, mind you) were necessary for this to happen in Texas. understandably he doesn’t say why….

  • Newspapers lost interest, almost in lock-step, but what about the leading Democrats in the House and Senate (see jimBOB #12)? They’ve proven they can bloviate at length on trivialities (like their own travel at our expense). Why can’t/won’t they keep this issue alive? An accident loses interest shortly after it’s reported. Breaking the law — especially having the Secret Service aiding and abetting the crime — shouldn’t disappear as easily as the Democrats are letting it. Yet another example of how the Democratic incumbents would prefer to snuggle down and get their lips around the generous Federal Tit than stand up for something … in this case, the Law.

    Hold an inquiry, you lying bastards!

  • skewer
    I am not a product of public education so I will explain.

    The article above implies the VP was somehow remiss re the reporting of this incident. Waumpuscat points out, correctly, that Texas requires physicians report all gunshot wounds to authorities. Therefore (try to follow now) by taking Mr Whittington in for treatment right away (unlike the swimmer) the VP fulfilled his obligations, to which all the above (except the informed waumpuscat) posters dissagree.

    jim b then calls on all to ignore the sage information dispensed by waumpuscat.

    Thus my conclusion that the population here must be unable to debate. I also doubt your comprehension skills but have not yet reached a definitive conclusion. Prove me wrong.

  • I would like to thank that perceptive poster, “bogie”, for his kindness to me and to the other posters on this thread, who have profited greatly by his patient instructions, so carefully composed. There was one story, and only one story, concerning the events related to the hunting accident. Two old friends went hunting, and one of them was wounded by accident. A sad event it was, but, fortunately, no tragedy. Sympathy, an emotion formerly widespread in America, was due both of these elderly and wise gentlemen, who handled the accident with their customary dignified restraint. The virulently partisan political campaign to transmogrify this accident into a political and ethical transgression might have succeeded if lesser men had been involved, but it failed. THAT DOG WOULD NOT HUNT!

    Democrat expressions of sympathy, and sober coverage by the Left Media Trust that stuck severely to the facts, could have gained points for the Democrat Party. Instead, they have displayed tendencies unsuitable for a political party fit to administer the government of FREE MEN!

    Reform the DEMOCRAT PARTY!

  • I’m truly touched by waumpuscat’s concern for us poor Democrats. I’m sure he, like his ideological brethren, is only concerned with our betterment. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with his being one of the authoritarian cultists striving to defend their maximum leader second in command when he was discovered to have got drunk and shot an old man in the face.

    Just a suggestion for bogie and waumpuscat – why don’t you try, say, downing a few cold ones, running over a pedestrian, and then delivering said pedestrian to the hospital without notifying the police, then heading back home for cocktails. When the police do show up at your door, tell them to go away till the following morning. Let me know how it works out for you.

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