by MzNicky
Cheney’s tightly managed cherry-picking of time, place, and details in addressing the nation’s concerns over Shotgate couldn’t have been more telling. In an “EXCLUSIVE!” interview Wednesday night with Faux News WH water-carrier Brit Hume, the Veep deigned to share with the nation the following observations concerning his shooting of hunt-buddy Harry Whittington last Saturday:
*The media are kicking up a stink because of their “jealousy” that Katherine Armstrong, party hostess/good friend/public-affairs spokesperson-designee, gave the scoop to the Corpus Christi Corpuscle (or whatever the paper’s called) instead of the New York Times. “It’s about them,” Darth Cheney sneered, as only he can, referring to those sorehead reporters who simple-mindedly expected the official public release of information about the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHOOTING SOMEONE to come from, say, the VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE instead of from a socialite friend relaying her personal version of events to her personal friend at a local paper. Jealousy, Dick? Think justified outrage.
*The condition of his “good, dear friend,” Mr. Whittington, whom he had never hunted with before and whom he later more clearly defined as an “acquaintance,” was so uppermost in his mind that there was just no time or way to notify THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES about it until hours later, after his dear good acquaintance’s condition had been clearly established, because, as we all know, “first reports are always wrong” (do tell) and he wanted to make sure he knew exactly what Whittington’s condition was before bothering to let the public know. Well, okay. But -- do we still know what Whittington’s condition is? Hasn’t it changed several times since the shooting? Are we to consider ourselves lucky that we even know the shooting occurred, now, five days later?
* “Ultimately, I’m the guy who fired the trigger,” allowed the Veep. “You can talk about all the other conditions [such as, your admitted beer-drinking? The setting sun? The initial attempt to blame Whittington himself for the “mishap”?], but that’s the bottom line. ... It’s not Harry’s fault. I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.”
Well, yes, you are. We know that. Are we supposed to admire your character for admitting the obvious, after FOUR DAYS OF SILENCE? Sorry, Dick. Such a magnanimous display of personal responsibility does not a hero make.
*Cheney opined: “My first reaction was not to think I needed to call the press. Harry’s been shot—take care of it.” Other considerations were to make sure Mrs. Whittington was taken care of, and that their adult children were notified so that they wouldn’t have to “hear on TV that their father had been shot.”
Okay. That’s understandable, and thoughtful. Having endured the experience of having a loved one shot, I can appreciate, quite fully, Cheney’s sensitivity and foresightedness on this score.
*Hume: “Did it occur to you that...with something like this, sooner is better [in reporting it]?
Cheney: “Well, if it’s accurate. This was a complicated story.”
But is Cheney so tone-deaf, or cavalier, that he didn’t realize that he only made it MORE complicated with his initial delays and days of silence? Please. This guy’s been in the public eye half his life, and thus his fatuousness increases, rather than decreases, the credibility gap.
*Hume postulated that using Armstrong to inform the media created the “ suspicion that this was an attempt to minimize it” by releasing the story to a “little local newspaper.” Cheney responded that “She was the most credible one to do it. Katherine [Armstrong] was a witness.... an excellent choice. Who would have been better than witness who saw the whole thing?”
Well, actually, just about anybody EXCEPT a friend of 30 years’ standing on whose property the shooting occurred and who “saw the whole thing.” Especially after a time lapse of at least 12 to 15 hours. And given that a lot of what Armstrong deemed pressworthy was, oh, what would you call it—INACCURATE, perhaps leaving press duties in her hands wasn’t such a good call after all. Reports of shootings are usually less biased, and more replete with what you might call ACCURATE FACTUAL INFORMATION, when they come from such sources as POLICE REPORTS, for example. Which of course did not happen in this case, because the Secret Service barred the police from investigating the matter, or even talking to the shooter himself.
Let’s stipulate that even Dick Cheney may actually have enough humanoid compassion lurking somewhere in what’s left of his soul to consider the feelings of his shooting victim’s family. Let’s even grant that there may be some justification for his distrust of media and their indisputable ability to hyperbolize, theorize, and expand-a-size things. These concessions in no way excuse the monumental hubris, the unprecedented arrogance, of a public servant (which, theoretically, Cheney is) blowing off his responsibility to respond in a timely, dispassionate manner to the public about the fact that he SHOT SOMEONE. By so far responding solely through a friend, a written press statement, and, after much pressure, a hand-picked, WH-friendly shill at Faux News, and even then, only to obsessively edited softball questions, the Veep’s imperiousness is only perpetuated, and the full story of what really happened remains under cover.
Cheney VP Shoots Man Dick Cheney Cheney Hunting Imperial Presidency Bush Harry Whittington Fox News
posted by egalia for MzNicky
