Le Sequoit

Cheney's Got a Gun

It may seem like an accident. The Vice President turns and fires too carelessly and his buddy goes down. Happens all the time.

Now, don't think I'm going to say here that Cheney intentionally fired on his hunting partner. I couldn't know that about the man, and it strikes me as a pretty messy way to go about things for a guy who, let's face it, has more than a few hit men at his command.

But the story is so incredibly, hilariously, perfectly apt! What better describes the policies of this administration, held by many to be dictated by Cheney, than "shoot first, and ask questions later"? And then the man goes out and, in the simplest form, does exactly that! This is an accident?

The loyal opposition has been screaming that they are being accused of being weak on defense by a bunch of armchair warriors, and then this clown is caught in an imbroglio while getting out of his car to blast cage grown flightless birds to kingdom come. The big, tough former Secretary of Defense does canned hunting, like the little kids fishing at a roadside trout pond.

And in the midst of all the shouting about the Administration's secrecy and it's controversial policy of executive power trumping the law, he holds back for nearly a day the fact that the second most or possibly most powerful man in the world has shot somebody. When the sheriff's deputy arrives to make a report, he's told to come back tomorrow.

Of course, right wingers wonder what all the fuss is about, these guys who spent 40 million dollars on Clinton's sex life. Lots of left wingers are wishing the emphasis were on more substantial issues as well, and yet the story continues to fascinate. It just writes itself, it's so natural!

The comedians are having a field day. My favorite is this, from The Daily Show:

Rob Corddry : "Jon, tonight the Vice President is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. Now, according to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be the 78 year old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face.

And this man, who has been largely responsible for thousands of deaths of Americans, tens of thousands of dead Arabs, and untold thousands of post traumatic stress disorders, finally shows up four days later on kiss-his-ass Faux News to tell us that seeing his friend go down was the worst day of his life. Boo fucking hoo!

And so while this week we may have been discussing:

1. how Cheney outed Valerie Plame while she was working on Iran's hunger for enriched uranium;
2. that Bush by executive order extended his power to Cheney to classify and, presumably, de-classify intelligence info the very month Cheney was doing the outing;
3. the latest Patriot Act shenanigans; or
4. the so many ways the administration is changing the rules of American society via sub-paragraphs buried in voluminous legislation;

instead this is the story that resonates.

Relying on the witnesses who had 24 hours to corroborate their story the local authority has swiftly come to the conclusion that this incident was an accident, but the life in this story begs a qualifier.

Given the man, it was an accident waiting to happen.

posted by sequoit @ 7:48 PM