More trouble for Cheney?- Page 10

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 8:34am

Take a look at today's Wall Street Journal, in which die-hard conservative Peggy Noonan joins the groundswell of Republicans calling for Bush to dump Cheney.

snippet:

Right now in the White House they're discussing how to help the vice president get through his problem. They've already tried the wearing of orange ties, an attempt to take the sting out of the incident by showing they don't feel the sting. Duck! Ha ha!

But what are they thinking that they're not saying? Here's a hunch, based not on any inside knowledge but only on what I know of people who practice politics, and those who practice it within the Bush White House.

I suspect what they're thinking and not saying is, If Dick Cheney weren't vice president, who'd be a good vice president? They're thinking, At some time down the road we may wind up thinking about a new plan. And one night over drinks at a barbecue in McLean one top guy will turn to another top guy and say, "Under the never permeable and never porous Dome of Silence, tell me . . . wouldn't you like to replace Cheney?"

Why would they be thinking about this? It's not the shooting incident itself, it's that Dick Cheney has been the administration's hate magnet for five years now. Halliburton, energy meetings, Libby, Plamegate. This was not all bad for the White House: Mr. Cheney took the heat that would otherwise have been turned solely on George Bush. So he had utility, and he's experienced and talented and organized, and Mr. Bush admires and respects him. But, at a certain point a hate magnet can draw so much hate you don't want to hold it in your hand anymore, you want to drop it, and pick up something else. Is this fair? Nah. But fair has nothing to do with it.
Why Bush may be thinking about replacing Cheney.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 8:40am

It may be "officially" over, but I think this isn't going away any time soon. The unmitigated arrogance of Cheney's "I play by my own rules" methods has pissed off more that just those of us on the far Left. Even though George has said he's satisfied, I believe he is furious. Cheney behavior was pretty dismissive of him, as well.

I'm thinking that, after a small waiting period, the "residual effects" of this trauma will take its toll on Cheney's health, a "medically inspired" resignation will occur, and a new VP will be installed in time to give her the credentials to be on the ticket in '08.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 8:55am

Iflit, your very clever insertion of the pronoun "her" had me giggling. People in my office are always wondering why I'm snickering.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 9:04am

Is there any doubt she...the world's whitest black woman...won't be a serious contender?

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 9:08am

None whatsoever. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with choice no. 2.
Ann Coulter, perhaps?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 2:21pm

The Wall Street Journal continues its campaign against Cheney.

snippet:
---

"Cheney may not care about his political image but his political image affects the president, affects the party and affects members of Congress," says Scott Reed, a Republican political activist who managed Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign.

Speculation about Mr. Cheney's political position unfolded yesterday as local officials in Texas released their official report on last weekend's hunting mishap, declaring it to be an accident and largely recounting its details as Mr. Cheney has.

But the "incident report" from the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department in Texas shed little light on the subject of how close the vice president was to his hunting partner, Harry Whittington when he was wounded. The report quotes Mr. Cheney as saying that Mr. Whittington was about 30 yards away from him when he turned in the direction of a flying quail and shot. (See sheriff's report.)

That description, though, has become a subject of debate among hunters and experts, who question whether a shot fired at that distance could have penetrated Mr. Whittington's chest wall, as seems to have happened in the accident.

"I found that difficult to believe," says Gary Goodpaster, an official at Ducks Unlimited, a Memphis, Tenn., conservation group. "For that to have happened, the shot had to be much, much closer than 30 yards."

Mr. Cheney's political situation represents a turnaround from earlier in the Bush presidency. For much of the first term, the vice president was seen by many as a seasoned figure with good judgment sitting at the right hand of a younger and less experienced president -- an image that worked well for the Bush White House and Republicans in general.
Deconstructing Cheney's Role

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 2:58pm

FYI...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 3:01pm

Ouch!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 9:34pm

Whittington: "My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week."

Welcome to life in George Bush's America, where all victims must apologize to their assailants.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 11:46pm

Sound's like an abusive relationship to me.

"Sure he hit me, but he really loves me, I know he does."

If Dick and Whittington are friends, I am sure he does feel bad for the Veep - but to make such a statement is trying to divert blame from Veep to the Victim.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 11:48pm

i hear that cheney took the preemptive measure of taking harry's daughter on a "vacation" to his undisclosed location until harry made a public statement.

[vbplayer]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 11:49pm

How much $$$$$$ was he given to "pardon" Cheney.....I wonder?

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 11:51pm

Hah!

[Plum]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:06am

Man, I want a Dome of Silence.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:13am

oh, i got a dome for ya, plumsy.

[andycomposer]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:31am

This thread is like cocktail conversation on the deck of the Titanic.

[Plum]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:32am

Shush. I can't hear the quartet, dammit.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:45am

i said a little to my left.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:45pm

A nice compendium from the Associated Press.

===

VP Accident Tale Filled With Discrepancies

By CALVIN WOODWARD and NANCY BENAC, Associated Press Writers
Sat Feb 18, 3:52 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney said he didn't immediately disclose his hunting accident because he wanted the confusing details to come out right. Instead, authorized accounts came out slowly — and often still wrong.
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The result: a week of shifting blame, belatedly acknowledged beer consumption (not "zero" drinking after all) and evolving discrepancies in how the shooting happened, its aftermath and the way it was told to the nation.

"There's a reason they call this crisis management," said corporate damage-control specialist Eric Dezenhall, "and that's because it's a mess."

___

BLAME

In the first days after the vice president wounded attorney Harry Whittington while shooting at quail last Saturday in Texas, blame was placed on the victim for not announcing his presence to fellow hunter Cheney.

"The vice president did everything right," Katharine Armstrong, the ranch owner approved by Cheney to disclose the accident, said Monday. Whittington, 78, should have shouted that he was rejoining the hunting group after drifting off to retrieve a downed bird. "The mistake exposed him to getting shot," she said. "It's incumbent on him. He did not do that."

The White House picked up on that theme the same day in attempting to deflect any responsibility from the vice president. "If I recall," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said of Armstrong, "she pointed out that the protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington, when it came to notifying the others that he was there."

The about-face came Wednesday when Cheney made his first public comment on the accident.

"It was not Harry's fault," he said. "You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

___

DRINKING

Although there is no evidence that beer impaired Cheney's judgment, initial denials that he had consumed alcohol were wrong.

"No one was drinking," Armstrong said at the outset. "No, zero, zippo." She said the hunters washed down lunch with Dr Pepper. Later, she qualified her comments and said beer might have been in the cooler but she did not think anyone drank any.

The investigating officer from the Kenedy County sheriff's department, after interviewing Whittington in the hospital, reported that the victim "explained foremost there was no alcohol during the hunt."

Authorities did not investigate the accident until the next day. The Texas Parks and Wildlife accident report, dated two days after the shooting, checked "No" on the question of whether Cheney appeared under the influence of intoxicants. It did not address whether the hunters had been drinking at all. (The report also included a diagram depicting Whittington's wounds on the wrong side of his body.)

Cheney acknowledged Wednesday, "I had a beer at lunch" several hours before the group's afternoon hunt, asserting "nobody was under the influence."

___

VICTIM'S CONDITION

In the rush to assure everyone Whittington was "just fine," some important details were left out.

Initial reports had him treated at the scene, then taken by ambulance to the hospital, where in no time he was cracking jokes with the nurses. It turned out that after being taken to the emergency room of a local, small hospital, he was flown by helicopter to the intensive care unit of the larger hospital in Corpus Christi.

According to Armstrong's initial account of the accident scene: "He was talking. His eyes were open." Later, Cheney said that when he rushed up to the stricken man and talked to him, Whittington had one eye open and did not respond. He was, however, conscious.

Doctors said Tuesday that Whittington suffered a mild heart attack while in the hospital when one of the pellets migrated to his heart. He was released Friday.

___

LICENSE

Cheney did not have all his hunting papers in order, as suggested by the White House and initially stated by Texas authorities.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said Cheney was legally hunting with a license he bought in November. While that was true, the department's accident report the next day stated that he was in violation of a law requiring him to have an upland game bird stamp.

___

DISCLOSURE

The accident raised questions about the flow of information into and out of the White House communications apparatus.

Asked why no one released news of the shooting on Saturday night, McClellan said "the vice president's office was working to make sure information got out" but that details were slow to reach Washington that evening.

Armstrong, for her part, said no one at the ranch even discussed releasing the news on Saturday.

She said her family realized Sunday morning that it would be a story and decided to call the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She said she then discussed news coverage with Cheney for the first time.

"I said, 'Mr. Vice President, this is going to be public, and I'm comfortable going to the hometown newspaper,'" she told The Associated Press. "And he said, 'You go ahead and do whatever you are comfortable doing.'"

___

TELLING WASHINGTON

McClellan said
President Bush was told shortly before 8 p.m. EST Saturday that Cheney had shot Whittington, less than half an hour after Bush first heard there had a been an accident of some sort involving Cheney's hunting party. Confirmation that Cheney was the shooter was obtained when deputy chief of staff Karl Rove called Armstrong, McClellan said.

However, McClellan said he didn't personally know Cheney was the shooter until the next morning, about 6 a.m. EST Sunday, when he was awakened with the news.

He said he only knew the previous evening that someone in Cheney's party had been involved in a hunting accident.
VP Accident Tale Filled With Discrepancies

[DG]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 12:55pm

Cheers Greet Cheney at Appearance in Wyo.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 1:27pm

Cheney is low. But Condie Rice is the reincarnation of Jim Crow!