Hunting VP Dick Cheney: Press outrage over hunting accident…

[Avid outdoorsman VP Dick Cheney to Britt Hume of FOX News on shooting his hunting buddy last weekend…. Perhaps now he’ll do more fishing than shooting. ]

Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney finally met the press to explain how he accidentally shot Austin lawyer Harry Whittington during a weekend Texas hunt and why he refused to personally disclose details about the shooting to the White House press corps. But, even though he was far more forthcoming and emotional than anyone could have anticipated during this belated interview, I have no doubt that Democrats will still be gnawing at his political bones. And, for this, he is at least partly to blame.

Because no matter how noble his intentions for controlling the release of information about this incident (ie. concern about the precise nature of the injuries and wanting to inform Whittington’s children first), he should have come forward much sooner and here’s why:

Officials in the Bush administration have gotten away with secret dealings that make the attempts by officials in the Nixon administration to cover-up their dirty tricks seem relatively innocuous. Indeed, whether it’s their refusal to fully disclose government no-bid contracts to Haliburton (to profit unconscionably from the war in Iraq) or Cheney’s own secret negotiation with oil companies to make national energy policy more palatable to Exxon, the code of omerta (arrogant silence) observed by all of Bush’s men (and women) would make any mob boss proud.

Therefore I can understand why so many members of the White House press corps, in particular, are taking bites out of the soft spot this story has opened in Cheney’s Teflon political shield. But, frankly, the relentless gnashing of teeth over Cheney’s failure to explain himself to them has turned their justified professional indignation into a media circus; just as violent protests by some rabid Muslims have turned their justified moral indignation into a Jihadist frenzy.

Even more unseemly than the press behaving like hyaenas with press credentials, however, is the partisan pontification of political pundits who seem completely inured to the universal emotion that is evoked when a man accidentally shoots a friend:

But, for the record, that’s the story folks. Period!

(Although I suspect that many of Cheney’s critics were praying for Whittington to die from his injuries to vindicate their misguided outrage. As it stands, his wounds are not life threatening and, despite complications with his heart, doctors expect him to make a full recovery.)

So, here we have the notoriously emotionless Dick Cheney breaking down on TV over this tragedy (and not for himself – because he clearly faces no legal or political jeopardy), whilst indignant members of the press and Democrats are focusing solely on scoring professional and political points. This story is at once a tragedy and a travesty. But as much as I abhor Cheney’s mafia-style execution of his VP duties, I have nothing but sympathy for him as he clearly struggles with guilt and grave concern over this unfortunate accident.

Note: I am especially disgusted with the way some Democrats are behaving because their criticism reeks of such partisanship and hypocrisy that it triggers acute political gag reflex. For example, Senate Minority leader Harry Reid has been all over TV self-righteously decrying “this Administration’s secretive nature” because Cheney waited 1 day before disclosing details of this accident. Yet, just months ago, Reid himself was criticized for keeping secret for 3 days the fact that he was hospitalized after suffering a stroke….

But here’s the bottom line: If Cheney delayed reporting the fact that HE was shot, that would warrant this media outrage (because of obvious Constitutional implications). But this was an entirely private incident that affects no one except the families involved. Therefore, it hardly seems worthy this national kerfuffle: a sentiment Whittington himself expressed when he reportedly wondered to his doctors “what is all the hoopla about?”

Indeed!

VP Dick Cheney, shooting accident, White House press corps