I'm sorry. There IS an issue here.

[tigertoy]

Other people -- people I consider intelligent, whose opinions I respect -- have said on other journals that the Cheney hunting accident has been blown way out of proportion and we need to stop worrying about it.  They say that it was only an accident, that Cheney has done the right thing by apologizing and taking responsibility, and we're all done here. They say there is no evidence of a cover-up.  Some imply that the only reason to continue the discussion is a political desire to score points against the administration.

With all due respect, I cannot agree.

1. While the shooting was certainly not intentional, it does raise questions of whether it was truly unavoidable given that the group was going hunting in the first place, or whether there was real negligence involved.  When legitimate questions about whether alcohol was involved are met with the kind of a stern "no comment" that really looks like an admission of guilt, and when it comes to light that the Vice President didn't care enough about following the rules of hunting to have the proper license, I do not think it is unfair to wonder whether this was a genuine accident, or a case of recklessness.


2. Cheney has apologized and taken responsibility, but when he waits three days before he does it and does it by an exclusive interview with a network so friendly to him that half of the country does not consider it a reliable news source, he only gets a "C" in my "doing the right thing" book.  He passes, but not with a praiseworthy performance.


3. The White House has a large staff whose job is to work with the press on getting important information out to the public in a timely fashion.  It is not right that the story came out through the owner of the ranch talking to an obscure newspaper in a minor city, rather than through the channels the White House uses when they consider the story important.  I truly cannot imagine any motivation for this other than the hope that nobody would notice the story so they could avoid a scandal.  Cover-up?  Maybe not really.  But certainly an attempt to hide it.


4. There are more important issues before the country, such as the President's illegal wiretap program and Iran working as fast as they can to develop nuclear weapons.  It would be nice if the news media could cover an important, timely, but not top-of-the-heap issue like this without making it the only topic of discussion.  But I do believe we need to talk about the real problems I outlined above.  It should not continue to be front page news just because it is embarrassing to the Administration, but it also should not be dropped or suppressed just because it is embarrassing to the Administration.

Comments

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression the first thing on their minds was getting the victim to the hospital.

I'm no fan of Cheney, but I'd cut him slack on handling stuff in what could have been a life-and-death emergency.

I would rather hear more information on how to avoid filling one's hunting partner full of buckshot than about who said what when.

The Bush Administration is having a field day with this because it's taking attention away from issues like the illegal wiretapping.

[billroper]

Birdshot, actually. Buckshot's larger and more damaging.

The short-form answer on how to avoid hitting your hunting partner: know where he is and don't shoot anywhere near him. Don't shoot if you have any doubt about whether the direction you're aiming is anywhere near someone in your party.

This still won't work, since no one's infallible. The bird is flying low across the brush, you're swinging to follow it, you've focused on the target, and you don't see that someone in your party is where you didn't at all expect them to be, despite the fact that they're wearing bright orange. It's like the auto accidents where someone gives a statement like "I changed lanes and hit a car that wasn't there."

As far as the Administration enjoying this, I've seen reports that indicate that folks in the Administration "suggested" to Cheney that perhaps he ought to get out there and make a statement. I saw a left-of-center friend of mine on LJ suggesting that the right-of-center folks wanted to continue flogging this beast as a distraction, but mostly I've seen the flogging coming from the left wing.

Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places. :)

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'd call it an equal opportunity flogfest.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I do agree that this subject has been worked to death, but there are two
other points that come out of it:

Auto accidents are much more common -- and lethal -- than people realize.
Anything that kills 40,000+ people each and every year in the US -- and
another 4000 or so in Canada each year -- should *not* be trivialized.

Secondly, this episode reminds me *very* much of a similar scene in H.
Beam Piper's short story "Day of the Moron," except that in that case,
the victim was hit in the part of one's anatomy used for sitting down.
The technology in that story may be dated, but I believe the point he
made is *not* dated -- it's just very politically incorrect to repeat
it.

Sic transit gloria Monday ... and Tuesday's usually worse. :-)