Duck and Cover

Big Time!!!!!

Well, it's Day Two of the unraveling of the ShotgunGate. (And really, it didn't have to come to having "Gate" added to it, if it wasn't for the apparent cover up reminiscent of a guilty high schooler who's dancing as fast as he can to convince the parents that no, there was certainly no kegger at the house over the weekend while they were out of town, despite the shifting stories of those involved....) As noted earlier, the shotgun blast victim, Harry Whittington suffered a minor heart attack after a shot pellet penetrated his heart lining. All joking aside (and it's really heard to put it aside), this is fucking serious. This is a 78 year old man, and things can go awry when one is shot at that age. And yet, at the start of the day, BushCo and its minions were yucking it up:

The White House has decided that the best way to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney's shooting accident is to joke about it.

President Bush's spokesman quipped Tuesday that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn't be confused for hunter's safety wear.

"The orange that they're wearing is not because they're concerned that the vice president may be there," joked White House press secretary Scott McClellan, following the lead of late-night television comedians. "That's why I'm wearing it."

But once it became apparent that Mr. Whittington's condition had worsened, the White House is finally starting to act like adults instead of frat boys. Well, maybe they're still frat boys just feeling a bit fidgety. Here's Scott McClellan at today's White House press conference:

MR. MCCLELLAN: Yeah, again, Suzanne, if you all want to continue to focus on this, you all can spend your time on it. We're going to keep focusing on the pressing priorities of the American people, like talking about how to make health care more affordable and accessible. We've got important work to do for the American people, and that's where we're going to keep our focus. You're welcome to continue to focus on these issues. I'm moving on.

I'm glad you can move on, Scott. Looking forward to those health savings accounts. However, there's still a lot that is unanswered about this whole deal. And when the Vice President of the United States shoots someone, even accidentally, and could be implicated in a potential charge of manslaughter if (heaven forbid) things go very wrong for Mr. Whittington, some answers should be expected.

But because of this adherence to holy secrecy, the American public and punditry is left with guessing what happened. For instance, Lawrence O'Donnell (executive producer of The West Wing) muses over at the HuffPo whether there was indeed alcohol involved in this incident:

"This was a hunting accident," said Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office. "There was no alcohol or misconduct."

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.

And this secrecy comes directly from the man who's pulling the strings in the White House: Dick Cheney. Dan Froomkin over at the WaPo's White House Briefing has a collection of sources that point to Cheney's office controlling the dissemination of information. Here's one choice quote:

Here's Bill Plante on CBS this morning: "The vice president's office did what they wanted. . . . In any other White House that I've covered -- and that's several, as you know -- the vice president would never have this kind of power. But if it were up to Dick Cheney, he wouldn't tell us if our shirts were on fire, for heaven's sakes. He likes to hold things close and he and his office drove this."

Finally, with talk of "spraying" Whittington with "pellets" belies the fact that, as the Daily Show drilled into their fantastically hilarious bit last night (found over at Crooks & Liars), the Vice President shot a man. And ThinkProgress has a post about a simulation done by Corpus Christi Caller-Times photographer George Gongora--with a picture and a link to a video--that shows just how serious this shooting incident was.