Given the extreme secretive nature of the Bush administration, except when they seek to push propaganda, it is not surprising that there has been no urgency to inform the public of the details of the shooting incident at the Texas Armstrong Ranch. Cheney, in particular, prefers to be a backroom politician, emerging from cover only temporarily to snipe at political enemies and critics. But the callous silence surrounding the shooting of his supposed pal and big time GOP contributor smacks of something more. The 20 hour delay in even getting word out to local press, when cell phones and command post equipment was readily at hand, suggests that there was a need to cover up certain facts and present a story with enough "truthiness" to be palatable to the media and the public.
The White House initial spin of blaming Whittington, the victim for the shooting accident was not only cruel, but politically dangerous. If it was to be portrayed as an "accident," then why spin it as anyone's fault? The logical answer is to shift blame from the vice president. To pose a likely scenario, and yes this is speculation - but educated guesses have some merit, Cheney and his hunting buddies had been drinking and neither Cheney nor Whittington was alert enough to pay full attention to what they were doing. Cheney saw movement in the brush and turned and fired his shotgun at the movement. Every hunter knows that you are supposed to look carefully and aim before pulling the trigger. Trying to place the blame upon Whittington is simply cruel and dishonest. The gun did not "go off" accidentally, Cheney deliberately pulled the trigger.
No secret service personnel was going to stop Cheney from hoisting a few, or from going out on the hunting escapade. Hunting accidents of this type do happen frequently, but usually when drinking has been involved. As a result, the incident was kept quiet long enough for blood alcohol levels to dissipate. Had local authorities been called in to investigate, as would happen for a typical citizen, standard procedures would have required screening to see if alcohol consumption was a contributing factor. There would have been an independent investigative reference to the scene and a check on the extent to which the vice president and his office could fabricate a story. As it now stands, the GOP and Cheney will have a large debt to repay to Whittington to keep him quiet about the actual events out on the Armstrong Ranch last Saturday. This story will be up to Cheney's staff [or perhaps ultimatel a federal prosecutor] to reveal. Cheney can be thankful that the incident did not happen in Ronnie Earle's bailiwick.
Cheney does not believe that he is answerable to the law or to the American people. And we know what he does to people who challenge him or disagree with his distorted view of the world and himself. If Whittington decides to publicly tell the truth about the incident, the shooting he got will seem like a Swedish Massage compared to the treatment Cheney will deliver.
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