Krauthammer has a reasonable look at the controversy.
I'm just glad he didn't shoot Scalia.
Well, everyone's entitled to one Quailgate joke, so that's mine. Although the best one, occurring at the Monday White House news briefing, was only inadvertently funny: Reporter's question to Scott McClellan, "Would this be much more serious if the man had died?
''This news briefing got famously out of control (as a psychiatrist, the groups I ran for inpatient schizophrenics were far more civilized) over the new great issue of our time: Why was there a 14-hour delay in calling the press?
I've had the discussions with the famously liberal citizens of the People's Republic of Massachusetts that I work with on the blame game. Most of their howling has been from their analysis of people pointing out that Whittington walked in unannounced onto a firing line and thus accepts some of the blame. (They then go and completely ignore that Cheney stated, quite clearly, that Whittington is blameless.)
My first question is whether they have ever hunted wild birds before. Which the answer, to no particular surprise, is no.
Next I ask, do you teach your children to stop and look both ways before crossing the street, and then not cross if a car is coming? (Answer is Yes)
So, Let's compare Whittington's actions to a child crossing a street. The car's driver has the ultimate responsibility not to run down a pedestrian who steps out into the street, but if one does and is struck, then the driver has had an accident to which the pedestrian participated. The fault of the accident still primarily lies with the driver. Whittington walked into the end position of the shooting line which was being worked by Cheney. The shooting angle that Cheney had been using would have been greatly decreased if he had known of Whittington's presence, as that is how shooting lines work if you know what you're doing. By announcing himself, Whittington would have been stopping and looking both ways before crossing the street. It's that simple.
Doesn't get Cheney off the hook for not ensuring a clear shot. That was still a bad error. But like the pedestrian, you don't step in front of a car from a self-preservation point of view.
I don't see anything wrong with having a joke about Cheney's mistake. Politics fairly demand that. But then the Democrats have really stretched this all into strange little knots. Conspiracy theories on Cheney covering up being drunk (which has no evidence but really sounds good) to Reid and Pelosi making this out to be an indicator to every Administration problem from Katrina, Abu Ghraib, to Iraq. Pretty long stretches for all of that.
It really is quite informative to the machinations of the Political machines to watch how this accident has been turned around for political gerrymandering.
My first question is whether they have ever hunted wild birds before. Which the answer, to no particular surprise, is no.
Next I ask, do you teach your children to stop and look both ways before crossing the street, and then not cross if a car is coming? (Answer is Yes)
So, Let's compare Whittington's actions to a child crossing a street. The car's driver has the ultimate responsibility not to run down a pedestrian who steps out into the street, but if one does and is struck, then the driver has had an accident to which the pedestrian participated. The fault of the accident still primarily lies with the driver. Whittington walked into the end position of the shooting line which was being worked by Cheney. The shooting angle that Cheney had been using would have been greatly decreased if he had known of Whittington's presence, as that is how shooting lines work if you know what you're doing. By announcing himself, Whittington would have been stopping and looking both ways before crossing the street. It's that simple.
Doesn't get Cheney off the hook for not ensuring a clear shot. That was still a bad error. But like the pedestrian, you don't step in front of a car from a self-preservation point of view.
I don't see anything wrong with having a joke about Cheney's mistake. Politics fairly demand that. But then the Democrats have really stretched this all into strange little knots. Conspiracy theories on Cheney covering up being drunk (which has no evidence but really sounds good) to Reid and Pelosi making this out to be an indicator to every Administration problem from Katrina, Abu Ghraib, to Iraq. Pretty long stretches for all of that.
It really is quite informative to the machinations of the Political machines to watch how this accident has been turned around for political gerrymandering.
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