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Tuesday, February 14, 2006
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 HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN; BANG, BANG, SHOOT, SHOOT
The weekend fun of the Vice President of the United States and celebrated shootist, Dick Cheney has gotten just a touch more serious than the White House is still willing to admit. This morning, Cheney's target, Harry Whittington suffered what is being called a "minor heart attack" as a result of birdshot that entered his heart.
For my slower readers, let me spell it out. Vice President Cheney shot somebody in the face, neck and heart and that person suffered a coronary as a result. This is not getting "peppered pretty good," as was suggested yesterday.
Not only did Cheney very nearly kill somebody, he and the White House are handling this disaterously. Not only did we not hear about the accident for 20 hours, Cheney did not speak with local police for 14 hours after the shooting.
I explained this in my comments last night, but I figure most of you don't read those so I'll do so here. Often times when one shoots someone in the face, the police take an interest in said shootery. They get really nosey that way. Cops have this annoying habit of wanting to investigate if it was a murder, a case of criminal negligence causing injury, or just stupidity. You see, waiting 14 hours to speak with police also allows alcohol, if any, that may or may not have been in his system to go bye-bye.
These might not be fair questions, but since Cheney was twice arrested for driving under the influence, they are pertinent.
Some folks might point to the presence of the Secret Service, but that would demonstrate a fundamental ignorance of their function. The Secret Service are federal law enforcement, and shooting non-federal government employees in the face is not a federal crime. Indeed, Cheney could've torn Whittington's heart from his chest and eaten it in front of the agents and they would not have jurisdiction. Then there's the matter of their protective function conflicting with their law enforcement function. The local sheriff's department had jurisdiction over this, and they were kept away from the guy who pulled the trigger for 14 hours.
Um, why? Think you'd be accorded that consideration?
Almost as bad is the lid placed on the story. It took the Cheneys host to notify a local Corpus Christi newspaper that a constitutional officer of the United States government, the man a heartbeat away from the presidency, had just shot an elderly man in the fucking face.
This annoyed the White House press corps to no end. You see, they generally don't check the websites of the local Corpus Christi newspapers on a minute by minute basis. They might be forgiven for operating under the mistaken impression that if a senior member of the Executive Branch had just blown someone away, they would be notified of it. It is pretty adorable when you think it through though, isn't it?
Their displeasure was taken out on White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's hide. McClellan actually seemed a lot less full of shit than normal yesterday. He actually didn't seem to know what the fuck was going on and consequently looked terrified.
Q So as the Press Secretary, are you satisfied with the way this was handled?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I know that the Vice President's Office was working to pull together information and make sure that information got out. And the Vice President felt that Mrs. Armstrong should be the first one to go out there and provide that information to the public, which she did -- and she reached out early Sunday morning to do so.
Q And you're satisfied with the way --
MR. McCLELLAN: You can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job.
Q Well, it's not really a hindsight issue here. I mean, the Vice President made a decision about how the public should be notified that basically is at odds with the standard practice of how the President's own press operation and this White House notifies the public; isn't that right?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, again, this was handled by the Vice President's Office. The Vice President thought that Mrs. Armstrong should be the first one to give that information out, since she was an eyewitness.
Q But let's just be clear here. The Vice President of the United States accidentally shoots a man and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper, and not the White House press corps at large, or notify the public in a national way?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we all know that once it is made public, then it's going to be news and all of you all are going to be seeking that information. And the Vice President's Office was ready to provide additional information to reporters. There was no traveling White House press corps with the Vice President, as there is with the President in a situation like this --
The above is an example of what is commonly referred to in the public relations business as "bullshit." This White House has absolutely no problem getting information favorable to it before the American people in an instant. In fact, it took the White House less time to announce the capture of Saddam Hussein eight time zones away in Tikrit that it took to acknowledge that the Vice President shot somebody.
Monday's briefing got better, too. Or worse, depending on your loyalties.
Q: Scott, there's a report coming out of a Sheriff's deputy there who said that he was prevented from interviewing the Vice President by the Secret Service. Do you know anything about that? And is that appropriate?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I don't know anything about that. You ought to direct that to the Secret Service. My understanding was that Secret Service took the appropriate steps to inform law enforcement. But, again, check with Secret Service.
If true, there are names for that practice in law enforcement circles. Those would be "obstruction of justice", and "impeding a police investigation."
The way that American obstruction laws are written, it doesn't matter if a material witness is kept from authorities for 14 days, 14 hours or 14 seconds. It is still obstruction. Isn't the White House just a little curious to find out if the Vice President, the Secret Service, or both committed a felony?
These are, of course, legal issues that will go absolutely nowhere. This story has evolved beyond that now, and not in a way that the administration would have preferred. Were this handled properly, it would be an admittedly embarrasing story about Dick Cheney being a stunningly bad shot. It wasn't handled properly and it raises questions about the competence and honesty of the White House itself.
This administration is now running two fairly large wars and is perfectly capable of knowing what's going on. It should go without saying that there are any number of shootings in a war zone. The wounded are treated and that does not stop the information from moving up the chain of command, up to and including, the White House. Can a hunting accident in southwestern Texas possibly be any more complicated?
That leaves one of two possibilities; either the offices of the vice president and the president are not communicating, or there's a cover-up underfoot. Either possibility is very disturbing.
There's also a third possibility that was brought up at today's press briefing.
Q Scott, I just have two questions to follow up on the accidental shooting by the Vice President. Does the President think that the Vice President should address this publicly, personally, speak to the American people in any fashion to explain what happened and why it took so long to disclose it publicly?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think what happened has been explained. The Vice President's Office has talked about it; I've talked about it. And I represent the President and speak for him. The Vice President's spokeswoman speaks for him, as well. So that information has been provided. We went through this pretty thoroughly yesterday.
Q So the President doesn't think that the Vice President should actually think about it himself, not through intermediaries?
MR. McCLELLAN: You talk to the Vice President on a fairly frequent basis in the past, and I'm sure you will in the future, as well.
Q But he shouldn't really have to address specifically, in your view --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he has, through his office.
What many considered to a "one day story" is now in its fourth day. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to the administrations's seeming reluctance to address the story. I suspect from this point forward, the story will become Cheney's reluctance to speak about it publicly. That might've worked when the spin was that Mr. Whittington was "fine" and the incident was "much ado about nothing." That is demonstrably no longer the case.
The worst part is that Cheney is eventually going to have to talk about it. There's no doubt about that. But it would've been a lot better for him to have done so voluntarily and early that it is now that it'll appear that he's been forced to by the press.
I have no doubt that the seeds of this have everything to do with this administration's (and Cheney in particular) loathing of the press. What they don't seem to understand is that no White House has actually liked the press. From John Adams and the Sedition Act to Harry Truman threating to give a theater critic a "punch in the nose" to Bill Clinton's tirade to Rolling Stone about the "goddamn liberal media," the examples are endless. But White Houses deal with them, if only because the consequences of not doing so are even more unpleasant.
Again, I'm not suggesting that Vice President Cheney did anything illegal. What he did was actually worse, he created the appearence of wrong-doing, and unanswered questions are the ones that don't go away. This administration used to be incredibly adept at spin control. They were professionals with a remarkable skill at message discipline. But for whatever reason, that has escaped them over the last 13 months. For over a year, the White House has been on the defense as opposed to the offense.
If this shooting happened in a vaccum, I wouldn't that it was anything but funny. But it didn't. It came out at the same time as a congressional report on Katrina that is devastating to the federal government, the revealtion that Lewis Libby was authorized "by his superiors" to release the name of Valerie Plame, the Jack Abramoff scandal and the continuing controversey over the warrantless domestic surviellence program. If the Bush administration is seen as hunkering down over something as minor as a hunting accident, it puts a spotlight on their response to their other problems. And this is something they can't afford in an election year where they're struggling to maintain a 40% approval rating.
Had Cheney come out and the made the announcement himself, in person on Sunday afternoon and expressed some regret, this story would be a memory by now. Instead its only building, and the response is becoming the very picture of the Bush administration's preferred method of crisis management.
If you're a public figure and you do something that hurts somebody, the public wants to know that you regret it. Make no mistake, Cheney will have no choice but to do that eventually. It would have been so much easier had he done so early and on his own terms.
This story is going to get a lot more interesting before it goes away.
On a lighter note, I can't recommend this enough. You'll get as much of a giggle from it as I did.
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Labels: Fun With Politics
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