Straight Shooters
Accidents happen. You invade a country expecting a cake-walk and, boom, you get a quagmire. Next thing you know, you’re out trying to blast some quail and, damn, you shoot one of your fund-raisers instead. Remind me, please, to keep refusing Dick Cheney’s persistent invitations to go hunting with him. 
Could happen to anybody, right? So says Mary Matalin—the professional GOP hack and Cheney mouthpiece (and wife to top Clinton advisor Colonel Cueball Carville.) She said of the Veep. "He felt badly, obviously. On the other hand, he was not careless or incautious or violate any of the [rules]. He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do."
No? That is of course, ridiculous. When it comes to hunting accidents, unless someone impulsively darts in front of you, it is ipso facto the shooter’s fault. Read any of the descriptions of the accident, including the one in the link above, and it’s rather obvious what happened. Cheney got so excited and flustered about blowing up a fleeing quail that he spun around and fired, hitting – instead—the geezer millionaire standing behind him.
I’m not making a big deal about this. I’m not queasy about guns (with several NRA members in the family and a rusting bolt-action 7.65mm Argentine Mauser somewhere in some closet). And just because the responsibility for the shooting resides with the shooter, it was nevertheless an accident.
Yet… we all know there is some sort of grander metaphor at play here. All those one-liners dancing in our heads as we think about this.
Of greater concern than Cheney’s terrifying marksmanship, however, is the nagging question of why it took something like 18 hours for this news to come out. And as Editor & Publisher reports, it’s not even clear if the Vice-President’s office, or the White House ever intended to make the event public. The shooting didn’t come to light until a well-sourced Texas reporter more or less stumbled onto the story. The VP’s office confirmed what happened only after being queried by the same reporter.
Therein resides yet another metaphor for this administration’s attitude and behavior. As the New York Times editorialized yesterday, never has an administration gone more to the American people to request they forget about key issues like democracy, due process, and transparency in government. And never has an administration so less deserved such trust.
I hope the old guy who got blasted by Cheney recovers from his injuries. We, as a country, are going to need decades of convalescence to recover from the crew of reckless shooters.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:19 am
You certainly called it right on Cheney’s “violating the rules.” He shoots, it’s his fault.
Of course, he didn’t “mean to” — and isn’t that the usual defense of Dem policies (like inner-city education) that fail year after year (for 30 years)?
Then you add democracy, due process, and transparency…
“Forget about democracy”???
C’mon Marc, stop lying to yourself.
Democracy in Afghanistan — thanks to Bush (after the Taliban refused to hand over OBL).
Democracy in Iraq — thanks to Bush; and a war that was totally necessary to favor democracy over stable status quo acceptance for dictators and/or genocide.
That looks a lot better than anarchy in Somalia, genocide in Rwanda; or going back to Jimmy the subsidized peanut farmer millionaire, Iran Revolution, and the Dem Party vote against more US military funds in Vietnam. The resulting SE Asian Killing Fields seem to me like a result of Dem Party votes — but not very democratic.
(My same list of Dem Party mistakes; to your almost same complaints against Bush.)
Let’s remember that the filibuster is anti-democratic; and that Roe vs Wade was an “amendment” made by those unelected UN SC folk — a law that is highly unlikely to have been made by elected legislature. When it is repealed, it’s likely we’ll see more real US democracy, with some states having abortion illegal, and some legal. In accordance with the wishes of the people, thru their elected reps.
“Transparency in gov’t” — where are the Dem calls for listing every representative sponsor of all earmarks on every bill on the Internet? Or other forms of more transparency reform?
The Dem “Global Test”, meaning the UN, means supporting an org that has virtually no transparency, more corruption than Halliburton, and peacekeeper who often require sex services for food — almost unreported on in US (Dem supporting) media.
Never has an opposition party been as petty, damaging, insulting, and consistently hysterical as the current Dems with, like you, almost no concrete suggestions for reform to make things better. More troops to Iraq and/or immediate withdrawal?
I’d like to see the Reps in the Senate vote on continuing the NSA program or not — but I guess a vote might be delayed until closer to elections. So the democratic fear of being unelected pushes more Dems to act more responsibly.
Perhaps you think Bush should talk to the press more? So the Pres. can more often hear 13 requests for him to apologize — what a waste. When the MSM usually spins the written speeches as negatively as they can.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:44 am
Hunting? or just killing things for fun?
(Do most people hunt from an SUV caravan. My neighbors around here don’t). Does anyone in Washington work for a living or are they on permanent vacactions?
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2693558/detail.html
” Monday’s hunting trip to Pennsylvania by Vice President Dick Cheney in which he reportedly shot more than 70 stocked pheasants and an unknown number of mallard ducks at an exclusive private club places a spotlight on an increasingly popular and deplorable form of hunting, in which birds are pen-reared and released to be shot in large numbers by patrons. The ethics of these hunts are called into question by rank-and-file sportsmen, who hunt animals in their native habitat and do not shoot confined or pen-raised animals that cannot escape.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that 500 farm-raised pheasants were released yesterday morning at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township for the benefit of Cheney’s 10-person hunting party. The group killed at least 417 of the birds, illustrating the unsporting nature of canned hunts. The party also shot an unknown number of captive mallards in the afternoon. “
February 13th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Republican talking point: “What’s wrong with shooting your buddy? Its the Democrats who hate guns who don’t understand our culture. Are you telling me you’ve never shot anyone? Cheney was NOT drunk, repeat, NOT drunk, or high on his various stimulants for his heart”
February 13th, 2006 at 9:21 am
When will the liberals learn? Guns don’t kill people, Dick Cheney kills people!
February 13th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Maybe some lovers quarrel was brewing between Cheney and his “buddy.”
February 13th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Sounds like flyfishing the Snake River with Dick would be almost as perilous.
February 13th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Thanks JD. So it turns out Cheney’s a fake hunter, just like he was a fake business executive and a fake strategist of our national security. Tom Grey can pontificate from his fantasy world (I love being called “hysterical” in the context of an incoherent BushLove screed), but if windsurfing was contrived to evoke something or other by the Bushwackos, Big Time Dick’s theme park “birdhunt” gone bad - with a campaign donor as accidental quarry, no less - is the perfect picture of this administration’s strange combo of hubris, incompetence and, of course, spin.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Since Woody seems to have abandoned the fray (apparently after being mortally wounded by a Jesus joke here, although after his huff he proceeded to link to pictures of Muhammed’s face on a urinal and toilet paper on his own site), let me step in to ritually remind everyone that if we limit the count to recreational, domestic deaths and leave “missions accomplished” and “last throes” out of this, Cheney is still 0 to 1 in comparison to Ted Kennedy.
Laura Bush is the only administration figure I’m aware of who’s actually matched Teddy’s record when it comes to accidentally killing one’s friends.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Liberty Dad -
You’re spreading buckshot like the VP himself, yet I must admit, as soon as I heard of this mishap I thought of inner-city education and the failure of Dem policies there. Good catch!
February 13th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Also couldn’t help thinking of the corruption in the Truman administration and Eleanor Roosevelt’s truly irritating tone of voice. My blood began to boil, but something inside me, some still small voice (perhaps an echo of the dispassionate wisdom I’d absorbed from Newt Gingrich) told me to let it go.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:48 am
“more corruption than Halliburton”
So you’re saying that Halliburton is corrupt?
February 13th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
You certainly called it right on Cheney’s “violating the rules.” He shoots, it’s his fault.
But what about the Dems violating the rules? FDR violating rules in 1940s running for office over twice no Dems talking about that now? Do you?
And isn’t that the usual defense of Dem policies (like supporting slavery in Civil War)? Stain on Dems. Don’t hear you, Marc Cooper, defending slavery. Are you hiding something?
Then you add democracy, due process, and transparency…
“Forget about democracy�??
How can I forget about democracy? I love democracy so much I legally changed my name to Tim Blue - Freedom Father!!!!11! In Slovenia, where I am expat, it is much easier to change names.
Jimmy Carter grew peanuts. This explains why the Dems are in the pockets of the ChiComs. Where were you when Saigon fell? Dem failure to suport Freedom!!!!! and Liberty!!!!! This is why I vote Reps.
Dems hate freedom and puppies. Just like they love sluts who like to have abortions and the blacks have IQs lower than whites. PC Liberal Thought Police try to stop by using shame making me feel bad and calling me a racist. Fascists! They should read the Bell Curve. Then the Dems would know.
Reps love freedom and are willing to take major risks drop bombs to make Iraq free. Isn’t it obvious?
Let’s remember that Darfur is the Dems fault. I have photographic proof of Hillary (Hitlery?) Clinton eating dead babies in Darfur aborted by LibDem sluts. Reps don’t vote to do anything in Darfur because Dems make fun of them.
Dems are mean. Pottymouths. This is why we needs Reps in gov’t inst’d of Dems in gov’t bec’se Reps vote to drill in Alaska haha t’ke th’t Dems.
Let’s remember that the filibuster is anti-democratic; let’s forget all the times the Reps used the filibuster when they were in the minor’ty (like blacks are in the minor’ty but PC Liberal Thought Police stop us from talking about low black IQs and Dems failed policies???)
“Transparency in gov’t†— where are the Dem calls for listing every representative sponsor of all earmarks on every bill on the Internet? Or other forms of more transparency reform? I can’t read. Pls some1 tell me if Dems are calling for transparency in gov’t.
The Dem “Global Testâ€, meaning the UN, meaning UNO, meaning One in Spanish, meaning tacos, meaning I wonder what my wife is making for dinner tonight.
But you don’t know this because you get your info thru MSM which is pro-Dem. I know because I get my info thru..the MSM…which is…moving on…
Never has an opposition party been as petty, damaging, insulting, and consistently hysterical as the current Dems with, like you, almost no concrete suggestions for reform to make things better. More troops to Iraq and/or immediate withdrawal? More meds and or psychotherapy for me? Phonics or grammar classes make me write better?
Apostroph’s are my favor’te.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
I blame social democrats around the world for Cheney’s attempt, to murder his lover.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Tim Blue - Laff’d.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
This could have been Antonin Scalia’s fate.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Please note that I am now accepting donations to the “Cheney takes George Bush Hunting Fund”
February 13th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Tom:
The vice president of the United States accidently shot someone.
And they weren’t going to tell anyone about it.
Don’t you think that’s a little fucked up?
February 13th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Tim Blue - Freedom Father 11 -
You make me wonder - why the “11″ - what gives? C’d that b for Sept 11? Is it maybe 7/11 (free enterprise, tasty slurpees!)?? Is it maybe Oceans 11 or 11 Brides for 11 Brothers (movies=dreams=FREEDOM!!). Witch is it father we wanna know!
February 13th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
“In my family, we just have “the talk” with the member of the family who ought not touch a shotgun any more. Guess it doesn’t work that way in the Cheney family — much to the Whittington family’s dismay, I’m sure.”
http://tinyurl.com/96qqk
February 13th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Spot on post, Marc.
I strongly recommend, if only for theater value, that everyone watch the video of poor, poor Scott McClellan’s head coming off as he tries to explain to an incredulous White House press corps why no one told anybody about Cheney’s having lit up a contributor until 18 hours after it happened. Moreover, when the info did come out it was provided, not by the White House, not by the Veep’s office, but by, Texas lobbyist/heiress, Katharine Armstrong. (To give you an inkling of the family’s general POV, her mom, Anne, is Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s best friend, and Anne was also a Halliburton director when that firm hired Cheney.).
And the announcement WAS finally made, it was not to the national media or the wires—but to the freaking Corpus Christi Caller-Times!!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
As Jane Hamshire put it:
“Nobody but nobody in the White House press corps is buying the bs story served up by McClellan whereby the Big Badass Vice President of the United States hides behind the skirts of a Texas housewife in a transparent dodge to keep anyone from knowing about what had happened until everyone could get their stories straight and Dick got the Wild Turkey off his breath…”
February 13th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Could happen to anybody, right? So says Mary Matalin—the professional GOP hack and Cheney mouthpiece (and wife to top Clinton advisor Colonel Cueball Carville.) She said of the Veep. “He felt badly, obviously. On the other hand, he was not careless or incautious or violates any of the [rules]. He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to do.â€
You need to be more understanding, he was hunting to relieve stress; when he realized that he shot his 78 year old hunting partner he looked at him and said, Uzi does it!
Look, Cheney has 5 military deferments, he didn’t serve in Vietnam, and so he never had a chance to learn how to handle a gun, properly.
And why bother reporting the incident to the press, he only shot him in the face—he didn’t kill him.
Marc—who is the other guy in the photo—he looks like someone I know?
February 13th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
When my son got his first bb/pellet gun, he also got subjected to the two golden rules of gun safety, one of which the Veep’s parents evidently forgot to mention:
1. Treat every gun as if it’s loaded.
2. Never ever shoot unless you know, not just your target, but what’s beyond it.
This canned hunting thing is beyond appalling. 417 birds shot by Cheney’s party of 10. What brave, brave sportsmen.
February 13th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
“This canned hunting thing is beyond appalling. 417 birds shot by Cheney’s party of 10. What brave, brave sportsmen.”
They have freezers–the same freezers they should use for stored fertilized eggs, which are urgently needed to conduct stem cell research.
February 13th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Rosedog are you accusing Cheney of hunting while hammered?
February 13th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
“Rosedog are you accusing Cheney of hunting while hammered? ”
God, no. We would be shocked. Shocked.
February 13th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
you all complained about his Vietnam deferments, and now he finally gets some combat experience you still complain.
No pleasing some people.
February 13th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Just another all in the family moment in Texas. As a wildlife biologist I don’t really condone the canned ranch hunt deals. It isn’t the way we do things in the wild. Really a shooting gallery for rich stupid “hunters.” The ones with the African theme are worse. I am not anti-hunting though. Or fishing.
February 13th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Can’t we persuade Cheney to shoot himself!
February 14th, 2006 at 12:11 am
The Daily Show is utterly hilarious tonight.
February 14th, 2006 at 1:13 am
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/TDS-Cheney-Shotg.mov
February 14th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization.
How apropos to have pellets removed from your heart on Valentine’s Day!
February 14th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
In defense of the VP, if you’re shooting on average 41.7 birds per outing you really don’t have time to make sure there’s no one in the way.