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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (11900)	2/14/2006 1:53:57 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541572

There is no doubt this was handled poorly. It is surprising that this was poorly handled even though you had Karl Rove involved early on. I thought Karl Rove was supposed to be the very best in handling this type of situation. Which leads to the speculation that more is going on here. It's clear that if there was nothing amiss here, the 24 hour delay was a very large public relations mistake. If something else was happening, who knows. I tivoed Jon Stewart last night. Too late to stay up. Can't wait to get to the Tivo this early evening to watch it.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (11900)	2/14/2006 2:06:23 PM
From: KonKilo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541572

I thought Karl Rove was supposed to be the very best in handling this type of situation. I'm assuming that he DID handle it well...at least for Cheney. He kept the local law enforcement away and gave Big Time enough time to work the George Dickel out of his system. Why else would they risk such a lag in reporting time?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (11900)	2/14/2006 2:15:36 PM
From: Suma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541572

Just heard that the gentleman with the buckshot has had a heart attack. Wouldn't it be something if he died... Also read something about he didn't have a license to hunt which was one reason for the delay in reporting the incident.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (11900)	2/15/2006 12:34:23 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541572

The veep who couldn't shoot straight newsday.com By Ellis Henican February 15, 2006 You knew it had to happen eventually: Dick Cheney giving someone a heart attack -- not just having one. Tuesday we learned that the vice president's boneheaded birdshot blast did a whole lot more than break that old fella's skin. Some of those little lead pellets are still floating around inside the body of 78-year-old Harry Whittington. And one of them actually collided with the poor man's heart, causing what doctors are calling "a minor heart attack." That was some peppering, huh? Actually, the elderly Austin attorney has been downright gracious to keep his mouth shut about the itchy-fingered VP mistaking him for a quail. But Cheney, despite another get-well call to the hospital in Corpus Christi Tuesday, does seem to be pushing his luck now. It has to be maddening for Cheney's unlucky hunting pal, lying around the ICU, hearing the Veep's various minions on the cable-news shows, trying to downplay everything. Waiting nearly 24 hours to alert the media. Refusing for almost as long to allow a local sheriff's deputy to interview the high-ranking triggerman -- too long for a proper blood test to be performed. Trying to blame the victim for getting shot, not the man who pointed the shotgun and squeezed. And everyone close to Cheney has been avoiding the S-word. Oh, no, that nice Republican lawyer wasn't SHOT by Dick Cheney. "He got peppered pretty good," as hunting party hostess Katharine Armstrong put it so memorably. Ready, aim -- pepper! Never before in quail-hunting history has being hit in the face, neck and chest with 28-gauge birdshot been made to sound like so much fun. If Harry Whittington had gotten any more peppered on Saturday, the legendary kitchen at the Armstrong Ranch would have to name a dish for him. Hunter au poivre, anyone? "You know, I've been peppered pretty well myself," the Armstrong woman added cheerily. It's been pointed out many times since Sunday night that the shooting on the ranch was, after all, an accident. And all the available evidence suggests that this is so. Compared to some of the scandals that have followed Dick Cheney like a prize-winning bird-dog, shooting a man on a quail hunt may not sound like much. But it's a story that has already run for painful days now, and it won't disappear until White House reporters finally get to the bottom of what happened. The Bush-and-Cheney beat hacks, so used to their catered feeds, had to read this one first in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. "The Caller-What?" you could almost hear the peeved David Gregory of NBC News bellowing at the hapless White House press secretary, Scott McClellan. But that's not the only reason Cheney's unfortunate shotgun blast is echoing still. The tale is packed with juicy details, and it encapsulates so much of what is already believed about a secretive and often self-righteous vice president. And it raises a question in stark human terms that's been raised repeatedly this past year in Washington: Can't these Bushies get anything right anymore? It used to be, back in the day, that Republicans were the party of competence. Not so warmhearted, perhaps. Maybe a little stingy. But when the tough stuff needed doing -- a budget had to be tamed, a war had to be fought -- many Americans felt more comfortable with can-do Republicans in charge. So where did all the capable Republicans go? They're as hard to find as FEMA trailers in New Orleans, as elusive as Saddam's WMDs. They're as gone as the federal-budget surpluses from the Clinton years. A shot rang out on a ranch in Texas, and the myth of Republican competence, fragile already, was blasted to smithereens. Forget Katrina. Forget Iraq. These guys can't even come home safe from a quail hunt. As the president might have said, but didn't this time: "Dick, you're doing a heck of a job!" Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.