It's only a flesh wound

If you haven't heard, and I'm sure you have, Darth Cheney shot a guy. Cheney, who obviously had some free time between chasing down terrorists and leaking classifeid information, wanted to shot quail - the bird not the man. And while accidentally shooting a lawyer is not funny for the shootee it is a gold mine for bloggers. Where to begin with this feast?

First the obvious as the blasting of Harry Whittington is a metaphor (or allegory? I can never get those straight) for this adminsitration. It's the gang that couldn't shot straight. Whether it's failing to capture Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, pre-war WMD intelligence, post-war planning or rather lack of post-war planning in Iraq or responding to Hurrincane Katrina these guys just can't it right. It's like The Keystone Kops are in charge. I'd say it's like The Three Stooges in charge but that does a disservice to The Stooges. I actually think Curly could run things better than Rummy and Moe could be a good press secretary.

So after Cheney shotguns a hunting team member the first impulse was to go secret. Brush it under the rug, don't talk about it, pretend it didn't happen. The White House and the Office of the Vice President had no public notice or comment on the matter. Like this sort of thing happens everyday. It was the owner of the ranch, Katharine Armstrong who alerted the media. "It was Armstrong's decision to alert the news media. Cheney's office made no public announcement, deciding to defer to Armstrong because the incident had taken place on her property. Armstrong called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, and when a reporter from the paper called the White House, the vice president's office confirmed the account."

Next the spin began that it was Whittington's fault for getting in the way. Before this is over Whittington will be deemed a John Kerry supporter and intended to get shot so as to embarrass the Vice President. That would be next impossible since nothing embarrasses Cheney, W, Rummy, Rice and the whole bunch of them. They are a rovering quail hunting party blasting first, going secret second and crowing about their shooting skills third.

Whittington should at least be thankful that Cheney is as incompetent a shot as he is at running the government. Unfortunately, both will eventually kill you.