Cheney's bunker takes a pounding
By David E. Sanger The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006
WASHINGTON When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.
But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work at around 7:45 a.m., Cheney learned that the man he shot, Harry Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Cheney's spokeswoman said.
No one in Cheney's office passed the word to McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary never would have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Whittington.
It was the latest example of the degree to which Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House - surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible - had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.
Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.
The tension between President George W. Bush's staff and Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they had tried to handle the news of the shooting differently.
McClellan, while being careful not to cross Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.
"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened, and the condition of the police officer," who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, McClellan said. His message was clear: There was a procedure for conveying this kind of news, and it was not followed in this case.
The past three days have underscored, in public, what has always been clear in the Bush White House: Cheney plays by rules of his own making. It is the kind of freedom that only a political figure who knows he is in his last job - Cheney often says he will never run again - can get away with.
"What he did was not an irrational thing," said Mary Matalin, Cheney's former communications adviser, who spoke to him Sunday morning.
"This was a very close friend this happened to. Everyone was shaken up about it.
"When I spoke to him, it was all about Harry, worrying about him," not whether he should get a statement out, or let his hostess on the Armstrong Ranch tell a local newspaper.
To others, though, it is a telling example of the cocoon Cheney has created within the White House.
Even at the most secure meetings in the White House situation room, Cheney tends to ask questions but leave the participants guessing about his own views - largely, his colleagues say they suspect, for fear of leaks.
His movements, once hidden for security reasons, are now often cloaked out of habit. Several senior members of the administration said they were not told of the shooting accident until late Sunday.
Several White House officials said that no one among the White House staff, including the chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., felt empowered to dictate how news of the shooting accident would be handled.
Presumably Bush himself could have declared how the news would be disseminated, something he does often on policy matters. Until this week, the periodic disconnect between Cheney's office and the rest of the White House has been the source of grumbling, but rarely open tension.
In the past five years, Cheney has grown accustomed to having a power center of his own, with his own miniature version of a national security council staff. It conducts policy debates that often happen parallel to those happening among Bush's staff.
But the team Cheney relies on has changed in recent months. The departure of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was indicted late last year on charges stemming from the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's name, left Cheney without one of his chief confidantes.
Marlin Fitzwater, who was press secretary to President George H.W. Bush (whom Cheney served as defense secretary), said he was "appalled" at how the vice president handled the news of a serious accident.
"The responsibility for handling this, of course, was Cheney's," Fitzwater was quoted as saying in the online edition of Editor & Publisher. "What he should have done was call his press secretary and tell her what happened, and she then would have gotten a hold of the doctor and asked him what happened."
A full account could have been put out "in about two hours on Saturday," he said.
Ari Fleischer, McClellan's predecessor, said Tuesday that he suspected the reason Cheney failed to say anything publicly was because he viewed the hunting trip and the accident as part of his private life, not his public one.
"If this had been a question of fundamental policy, the president's staff and the veep's staff would have gotten together," Fleischer said.
WASHINGTON When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.
But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work at around 7:45 a.m., Cheney learned that the man he shot, Harry Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Cheney's spokeswoman said.
No one in Cheney's office passed the word to McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary never would have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Whittington.
It was the latest example of the degree to which Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House - surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible - had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.
Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.
The tension between President George W. Bush's staff and Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they had tried to handle the news of the shooting differently.
McClellan, while being careful not to cross Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.
"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened, and the condition of the police officer," who
Cheney's bunker takes a pounding
By David E. Sanger The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006
WASHINGTON When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.
But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work at around 7:45 a.m., Cheney learned that the man he shot, Harry Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Cheney's spokeswoman said.
No one in Cheney's office passed the word to McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary never would have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Whittington.
It was the latest example of the degree to which Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House - surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible - had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.
Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.
The tension between President George W. Bush's staff and Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they had tried to handle the news of the shooting differently.
McClellan, while being careful not to cross Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.
"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened, and the condition of the police officer," who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, McClellan said. His message was clear: There was a procedure for conveying this kind of news, and it was not followed in this case.
The past three days have underscored, in public, what has always been clear in the Bush White House: Cheney plays by rules of his own making. It is the kind of freedom that only a political figure who knows he is in his last job - Cheney often says he will never run again - can get away with.
"What he did was not an irrational thing," said Mary Matalin, Cheney's former communications adviser, who spoke to him Sunday morning.
"This was a very close friend this happened to. Everyone was shaken up about it.
"When I spoke to him, it was all about Harry, worrying about him," not whether he should get a statement out, or let his hostess on the Armstrong Ranch tell a local newspaper.
To others, though, it is a telling example of the cocoon Cheney has created within the White House.
Even at the most secure meetings in the White House situation room, Cheney tends to ask questions but leave the participants guessing about his own views - largely, his colleagues say they suspect, for fear of leaks.
His movements, once hidden for security reasons, are now often cloaked out of habit. Several senior members of the administration said they were not told of the shooting accident until late Sunday.
Several White House officials said that no one among the White House staff, including the chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., felt empowered to dictate how news of the shooting accident would be handled.
Presumably Bush himself could have declared how the news would be disseminated, something he does often on policy matters. Until this week, the periodic disconnect between Cheney's office and the rest of the White House has been the source of grumbling, but rarely open tension.
In the past five years, Cheney has grown accustomed to having a power center of his own, with his own miniature version of a national security council staff. It conducts policy debates that often happen parallel to those happening among Bush's staff.
But the team Cheney relies on has changed in recent months. The departure of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was indicted late last year on charges stemming from the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's name, left Cheney without one of his chief confidantes.
Marlin Fitzwater, who was press secretary to President George H.W. Bush (whom Cheney served as defense secretary), said he was "appalled" at how the vice president handled the news of a serious accident.
"The responsibility for handling this, of course, was Cheney's," Fitzwater was quoted as saying in the online edition of Editor & Publisher. "What he should have done was call his press secretary and tell her what happened, and she then would have gotten a hold of the doctor and asked him what happened."
A full account could have been put out "in about two hours on Saturday," he said.
Ari Fleischer, McClellan's predecessor, said Tuesday that he suspected the reason Cheney failed to say anything publicly was because he viewed the hunting trip and the accident as part of his private life, not his public one.
"If this had been a question of fundamental policy, the president's staff and the veep's staff would have gotten together," Fleischer said.
WASHINGTON When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.
But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work at around 7:45 a.m., Cheney learned that the man he shot, Harry Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Cheney's spokeswoman said.
No one in Cheney's office passed the word to McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary never would have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Whittington.
It was the latest example of the degree to which Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House - surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible - had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.
Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.
The tension between President George W. Bush's staff and Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they had tried to handle the news of the shooting differently.
McClellan, while being careful not to cross Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.
"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened, and the condition of the police officer," who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, McClellan said. His message was clear: There was a procedure for conveying this kind of news, and it was not followed in this case.
The past three days have underscored, in public, what has always been clear in the Bush White House: Cheney plays by rules of his own making. It is the kind of freedom that only a political figure who knows he is in his last job - Cheney often says he will never run again - can get away with.
"What he did was not an irrational thing," said Mary Matalin, Cheney's former communications adviser, who spoke to him Sunday morning.
"This was a very close friend this happened to. Everyone was shaken up about it.
"When I spoke to him, it was all about Harry, worrying about him," not whether he should get a statement out, or let his hostess on the Armstrong Ranch tell a local newspaper.
To others, though, it is a telling example of the cocoon Cheney has created within the White House.
Even at the most secure meetings in the White House situation room, Cheney tends to ask questions but leave the participants guessing about his own views - largely, his colleagues say they suspect, for fear of leaks.
His movements, once hidden for security reasons, are now often cloaked out of habit. Several senior members of the administration said they were not told of the shooting accident until late Sunday.
Several White House officials said that no one among the White House staff, including the chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., felt empowered to dictate how news of the shooting accident would be handled.
Presumably Bush himself could have declared how the news would be disseminated, something he does often on policy matters. Until this week, the periodic disconnect between Cheney's office and the rest of the White House has been the source of grumbling, but rarely open tension.
In the past five years, Cheney has grown accustomed to having a power center of his own, with his own miniature version of a national security council staff. It conducts policy debates that often happen parallel to those happening among Bush's staff.
But the team Cheney relies on has changed in recent months. The departure of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was indicted late last year on charges stemming from the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's name, left Cheney without one of his chief confidantes.
Marlin Fitzwater, who was press secretary to President George H.W. Bush (whom Cheney served as defense secretary), said he was "appalled" at how the vice president handled the news of a serious accident.
"The responsibility for handling this, of course, was Cheney's," Fitzwater was quoted as saying in the online edition of Editor & Publisher. "What he should have done was call his press secretary and tell her what happened, and she then would have gotten a hold of the doctor and asked him what happened."
A full account could have been put out "in about two hours on Saturday," he said.
Ari Fleischer, McClellan's predecessor, said Tuesday that he suspected the reason Cheney failed to say anything publicly was because he viewed the hunting trip and the accident as part of his private life, not his public one.
"If this had been a question of fundamental policy, the president's staff and the veep's staff would have gotten together," Fleischer said.
WASHINGTON When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.
But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work at around 7:45 a.m., Cheney learned that the man he shot, Harry Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Cheney's spokeswoman said.
No one in Cheney's office passed the word to McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary never would have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Whittington.
It was the latest example of the degree to which Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House - surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible - had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.
Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.
The tension between President George W. Bush's staff and Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they had tried to handle the news of the shooting differently.
McClellan, while being careful not to cross Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.
"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened, and the condition of the police officer," who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, McClellan said. His message was clear: There was a procedure for conveying this kind of news, and it was not followed in this case.
The past three days have underscored, in public, what has always been clear in the Bush White House: Cheney plays by rules of his own making. It is the kind of freedom that only a political figure who knows he is in his last job - Cheney often says he will never run again - can get away with.
"What he did was not an irrational thing," said Mary Matalin, Cheney's former communications adviser, who spoke to him Sunday morning.
"This was a very close friend this happened to. Everyone was shaken up about it.
"When I spoke to him, it was all about Harry, worrying about him," not whether he should get a statement out, or let his hostess on the Armstrong Ranch tell a local newspaper.
To others, though, it is a telling example of the cocoon Cheney has created within the White House.
Even at the most secure meetings in the White House situation room, Cheney tends to ask questions but leave the participants guessing about his own views - largely, his colleagues say they suspect, for fear of leaks.
His movements, once hidden for security reasons, are now often cloaked out of habit. Several senior members of the administration said they were not told of the shooting accident until late Sunday.
Several White House officials said that no one among the White House staff, including the chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., felt empowered to dictate how news of the shooting accident would be handled.
Presumably Bush himself could have declared how the news would be disseminated, something he does often on policy matters. Until this week, the periodic disconnect between Cheney's office and the rest of the White House has been the source of grumbling, but rarely open tension.
In the past five years, Cheney has grown accustomed to having a power center of his own, with his own miniature version of a national security council staff. It conducts policy debates that often happen parallel to those happening among Bush's staff.
But the team Cheney relies on has changed in recent months. The departure of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was indicted late last year on charges stemming from the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's name, left Cheney without one of his chief confidantes.
Marlin Fitzwater, who was press secretary to President George H.W. Bush (whom Cheney served as defense secretary), said he was "appalled" at how the vice president handled the news of a serious accident.
"The responsibility for handling this, of course, was Cheney's," Fitzwater was quoted as saying in the online edition of Editor & Publisher. "What he should have done was call his press secretary and tell her what happened, and she then would have gotten a hold of the doctor and asked him what happened."
A full account could have been put out "in about two hours on Saturday," he said.
Ari Fleischer, McClellan's predecessor, said Tuesday that he suspected the reason Cheney failed to say anything publicly was because he viewed the hunting trip and the accident as part of his private life, not his public one.
"If this had been a question of fundamental policy, the president's staff and the veep's staff would have gotten together," Fleischer said.
WASHINGTON When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.
But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work at around 7:45 a.m., Cheney learned that the man he shot, Harry Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Cheney's spokeswoman said.
No one in Cheney's office passed the word to McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary never would have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Whittington.
It was the latest example of the degree to which Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House - surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible - had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.
Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.
The tension between President George W. Bush's staff and Cheney's has been palpable, with White House officials whispering to reporters about how they had tried to handle the news of the shooting differently.
McClellan, while being careful not to cross Cheney or his aides directly, has made a point of reminding reporters of how he dealt with Bush's bicycle accident last summer, when the president collided with a Scottish policeman at the G-8 summit.
"I immediately briefed the press on how the accident had happened, and the condition of the police officer," who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, McClellan said. His message was clear: There was a procedure for conveying this kind of news, and it was not followed in this case.
The past three days have underscored, in public, what has always been clear in the Bush White House: Cheney plays by rules of his own making. It is the kind of freedom that only a political figure who knows he is in his last job - Cheney often says he will never run again - can get away with.
"What he did was not an irrational thing," said Mary Matalin, Cheney's former communications adviser, who spoke to him Sunday morning.
"This was a very close friend this happened to. Everyone was shaken up about it.
"When I spoke to him, it was all about Harry, worrying about him," not whether he should get a statement out, or let his hostess on the Armstrong Ranch tell a local newspaper.
To others, though, it is a telling example of the cocoon Cheney has created within the White House.
Even at the most secure meetings in the White House situation room, Cheney tends to ask questions but leave the participants guessing about his own views - largely, his colleagues say they suspect, for fear of leaks.
His movements, once hidden for security reasons, are now often cloaked out of habit. Several senior members of the administration said they were not told of the shooting accident until late Sunday.
Several White House officials said that no one among the White House staff, including the chief of staff, Andrew Card Jr., felt empowered to dictate how news of the shooting accident would be handled.
Presumably Bush himself could have declared how the news would be disseminated, something he does often on policy matters. Until this week, the periodic disconnect between Cheney's office and the rest of the White House has been the source of grumbling, but rarely open tension.
In the past five years, Cheney has grown accustomed to having a power center of his own, with his own miniature version of a national security council staff. It conducts policy debates that often happen parallel to those happening among Bush's staff.
But the team Cheney relies on has changed in recent months. The departure of I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was indicted late last year on charges stemming from the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's name, left Cheney without one of his chief confidantes.
Marlin Fitzwater, who was press secretary to President George H.W. Bush (whom Cheney served as defense secretary), said he was "appalled" at how the vice president handled the news of a serious accident.
"The responsibility for handling this, of course, was Cheney's," Fitzwater was quoted as saying in the online edition of Editor & Publisher. "What he should have done was call his press secretary and tell her what happened, and she then would have gotten a hold of the doctor and asked him what happened."
A full account could have been put out "in about two hours on Saturday," he said.
Ari Fleischer, McClellan's predecessor, said Tuesday that he suspected the reason Cheney failed to say anything publicly was because he viewed the hunting trip and the accident as part of his private life, not his public one.
"If this had been a question of fundamental policy, the president's staff and the veep's staff would have gotten together," Fleischer said.
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