Cheney Coverup

The linked article is a OpinionJournal piece. I'm going to guess that it's satire.

Lawrence O'Donnell has a Conspiracy theory brewing.

How do we know there was no alcohol? Cheney refused to talk to local authorities until the next day. No point in giving him a breathalyzer then. Every lawyer I've talked to assumes Cheney was too drunk to talk to the cops after the shooting. The next question for the White House should be: Was Cheney drunk?

I have never gone hunting with ultra-rich Republicans on a Saturday afternoon, but I have seen them tailgating at Ivy League football games, so it's hard for me to believe that any of their Saturday lunches are alcohol free.

Nice. No facts, but if he can start a rumor that Cheney was pissed out of his mind then that's just as good. And because a lawyer assumes it, there must be factual basis for conjecture. But then I suppose you know my feelings about lawyers in general.

I understand he goes on a tirade at Hewitt's talk show as well. (Here's the Transcript. )

Terry McAuliffe and Kelly McBride are also trying to make news of a cover up for this incident.

But Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, accused Cheney of a "cover-up."

"This is the vice president of the United States of America who shot someone in the face," McAuliffe said. "This is about personal responsibility. He hid. He didn't get the facts out."

Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute said Cheney still hadn't adequately explained why it took so long for news of the shooting to reach the public.

"The fact that he didn't have press people traveling with him is a pretty lame excuse," McBride said. As for Cheney's explanation that he was more immediately concerned with Whittington's well being and notifying his family: "Dick Cheney wasn't tending to him personally. He wasn't down there tending to this guy, dressing his wounds."

In many ways, the shelf life of the story was much dependent on Whittington's recovery, McBride said.

"They're trying to put a very optimistic spin on his outlook, but he's 78 years old and he's got a BB in his heart."

Does McBride really think that the public believes Cheney was tending Whittington's wounds? With that in mind, does that statement actually seem reasonable? I have a feeling McBride is probably going to be very disappointed if Whittington doesn't die.

Tony Blankley shows some rather appropriate derision for the MSM in this article.

As I understand the profound concern of the ever-alert White House reporters, they smell a constitutional crisis because the shooting party failed to alert the media of the accidental shooting down in Corpus Christi, Texas. Well, actually, they did alert the Corpus Christi media -- but that didn't count. Unless the exalted ones have been formally informed by an official government press secretary, no public communication has technically occurred.

I checked the bylaws of the White House press corp, and they are right. It seems that the bylaws refer to Article XXIII of the U.S. Constitution, which expressly designates that White House reporters with a minimum annual income of $375,000 (plus minimum stock options equal to not less than two-thirds their yearly salary, plus use of driver and long sedan during business hours, of which hours must include post-deadline dinner engagements of a semi-social nature) are the exclusive recipients of all government information.

It fascinates me that the press seem to feel violated over this. Politically, the delay didn't help Cheney, but then again, does anyone honestly think he wouldn't have gotten run through the MSM ringer if he had notified the press instantly? Of course, you have to admit that the Fourth Estate is ENTITLED to that information.

There is also this Op-Ed by Thomas Sowell on the Spoiled Brat Media.