Lawyers, Guns and Money

Big Time

OK, I've finished with the work I needed to do today, so now I turn to the most pressing issue of the day... no, not more cartoon protests (this time in Pakistan)... no, not nuclear gamesmanship in Iran (which might have begun uranium enrichment)... and not even the damage the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson did to America's ability to monitor Iran's nuclear program (more on that later, though)... nope, the news of the day is the Vice President shot a man this weekend. To be exact, he shot Harry Whittington, 78, a prominent Austin, TX lawyer.

OK. It was a hunting accident. And it could have remained just an unfortunate hunting accident if the CheneyCorp subsidiary of BushCo didn't go into double-secret overdrive to tamp the story down.

First, let's start with a question from the WaPo's Dan Froomkin:

Why isn't Dick Cheney on TV right now?

The vice president of the United States shoots someone in a hunting accident and rather than immediately come clean to the public, his office keeps it a secret for almost a whole day. Even then, it's only to confirm a report in a local paper.

And still from the White House, no details, no apologies, and no Cheney.

No one is suggesting that Cheney shot his hunting buddy on purpose. But could he have been negligent? What does he say happened exactly? What do the others there -- not just their hostess -- say took place? Shouldn't there be some sort of investigation? Does Cheney take any responsibility? And just when was he planning on letting the press know?

Well, why would one of our nation's leaders even consider answering questions in public? That's Scott McClellan's job. And it was a tough day on the job for him, with the Washington press corps going ballistic. Here's NBC's David Gregory and Scottie McC at the non-televised press gaggle on Monday morning (you can watch the extended grilling at the televised press conference, later in the day, over at Crooks & Liars--which is equally delicious):

Why was the White House relying on a Texas rancher to get the word of Cheney's hunting accident out over the weekend, asked Gregory, accusing McClellan of "ducking and weaving.''

"“David, hold on… the cameras aren't on right now,'' McClellan replied. "You can do this later.''

"Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,'' the newsman said, his voice rising somewhat. "Don’t be a jerk to me personally when I’m asking you a serious question.''

"You don't have to yell,'' McClellan said.

"I will yell,'' said Gregory, pointing a finger at McCellan at his dais. "If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don’t appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that’s wrong.’

That's right--the White House didn't announce this news over the weekend. The woman who owns the Texas ranch where all this happened provided the information to her local newspaper, the Corpus Christie Caller-Times. Here's some transcript of an interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson and Kathryn Garcia, the reporter who broke the story (again, via Froomkin's White House Briefing column/blog):

Gibson: "So you're just in on a Sunday and the phone rings, right?"

Garcia: "Yeah. Actually that's kind of how it worked. I was incredibly surprised. I got a phone call from Katharine Armstrong. . . . She was explaining to me what happened, giving me the details, and she kept saying the vice president did this, the vice president did that, we were all hunting. And at the end -- I mean, it's a Sunday morning, it's supposed to be slow at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times -- and . . . I said, are we talking about Vice President Cheney? And she laughed a little bit and said yes, absolutely. And I thought, oh, my God, you're going to have to repeat that story one more time."

Gibson: "She told you, I know, that Mr. Whittington didn't follow protocol, and came up from behind the vice president and didn't sort of announce that he was there, having gone off to fetch a quail. But we've talked to hunters who say there's no protocol like that and the real problem is the shooter has to be aware of where anybody in his hunting party may be. Do you know anything about hunting protocol?"

Garcia: "I don't know that much, I'm not a hunter myself, but I do know a little bit, and I do know you're supposed to look before shooting."

We're gonna go long with this post, so rather than crowd the front page I'll blather on more about Paul Begala's view on hunting in South Texas and when the President learned about all this on the flip...

: : : : : : : : : :

Here's Texas native Paul Begala (former Clinton advisor and current CNN liberal flack) at TPM Cafe:

As a guy whose been hunting in South Texas for 30 years, and who's been hunting three times in the past six weeks, I cringe at the Washington Post's use of the benign verb "sprayed" in the lede of the Cheney hunting accident story.

[ed note - I just heard NPR use this term as well]

When you hit a man with a 28 gauge (likely 7 and a half shot) and land him in intensive care, you have not "sprayed" him. You've shot him.

[...]

Ms. Armstrong says Whittington should have announced himself upon approaching Cheney. That is right. At the same time, Cheney, as a shooter, has an obligation to be aware at all times of the whereabouts of the dogs (who don't announce themselves) his fellow hunters, the guides, dog handlers, etc. I've been on hunting parties of ten men, and it's the obligation of the shooters to know where each of them is, and to be sure they are safe. Cheney knew Whittington was chasing a bird. If he could not see Whittington, if he was not 100 percent sure of his whereabouts, he should not have taken a shot. No bird is worth it.

In sum, even from Ms. Armstrong's whitewashed account, it sounds to me like Cheney was not being safe.

The other intriguing aspect of this story is not just the communication of this event to the American people, but the communication of Cheney's shooting escapade to the President. Salon's War Room has the goods:

According to the Associated Press, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said today that the White House situation room informed the president and his senior aides Saturday night that someone in Dick Cheney's hunting party had been shot -- but that the president wasn't told until Sunday morning that the shooter was Dick Cheney himself.

That strikes us a a relevant detail.

How is it that the vice president of the most powerful nation of the world could shoot somebody -- within view of several witnesses, including, presumably, a contingent of Secret Service agents -- and the president doesn't hear about it until a day later? If the people in the White House situation room knew about the shooting, how could they not know about the shooter? Why did the Secret Service prevent local authorities from talking to Cheney about the incident? And why did the Bush-Cheney Pioneer who first reported the shooting initially refuse to reveal that Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, was hunting alongside Cheney and his victim?

Not to get all "grassy knoll" here, but something doesn't add up. If people in the White House situation room really didn't know the true facts about the shooting incident until Sunday morning, is there any explanation but that Cheney -- or those working with him -- chose not to tell them? Why wouldn't Cheney want the White House to know the truth right away? Did he think it would never come out? Or was somebody keeping the Cheney-did-it story quiet while coming up with a plan for someone else to take the fall?

Look, conservative bloggers can joke about this all they want (here's one example over at RedState), but this is a serious issue--and not one that is just the territory of the tinfoil hat crowd. What if this had been a fatality--would conservatives have passed off an 18-hour lag time as easily? What if it had been a Democrat? I know I would have been just as troubled if Vice President Joe Lieberman had shot someone and had kept it quite for a day.

(BTW - while trolling around the RedState blog, I came across this post about the Winter Olympics, with the writer noting he likes to "watch the Skelton [sic] because of the high probability of significant bloody injury, but other than that, who really cares?" Are all right-wingnut conservatives so blood thirsty?)

Finally, Jefferson Morley over at the WaPo's World Opinion Roundup has... erm... a roundup of world opinion concerning the Cheney shooting party:

The story prompted a slew of headline quips. From The Herald in Scotland: "Cheney bags a lawyer." Canada.com tops the story with "Cheney steps up war on lawyers" while New Zealand news site Stuff says "Whoops!." The British tabloid Sun proclaims, "Duck! Cheney blasts pal."

And from the Sydney Morning Herald: "Cheney Hunts Quail and the World Ducks."

The SMH also noted that Cheney is a favorite of the National Rifle Association.