Cheney's "Victim" Speaks
....and he's not playing the role to Extreme Media specifications - first by confirming that last weekend's shooting accident was, indeed, an accident, and then by refusing to become the latest hard-left vehicle of the moment by condemning the veep:
If you open your window and listen closely, you can probably hear the cursing bellowing forth in network and print media newsrooms across the country, but especially inside the Beltway. All the execrable tabloidesque speculations - that Cheney was drunk, that this incident was staged to cover up an illict affair (Who do "journalists" think he is, Bill Clinton?), that he could be charged with manslaughter or negligent homocide if Mr. Whittington would obligingly croak, and the omnipresent wishful thinking of Bush dumping him as a "political liability" - evaporated yet again, leaving the public at large with a huge new pile of evidence that the press is far more than merely "adversarial," and as a consequence is far less than credible. Which I suppose means that the Bushies are now free to fulfill every last left-wing paranoid conspiracist fantasy ever dreamed up, since reporting of such by the Dick Gregorys and Dana Milbanks of the world won't be taken seriously ever again.
Mr. Whittington put an appropriate epilogue on the latest media tepot tempest:
It's been said in numerous places that the emblematic aspect of this whole thing has been that it wasn't ultimately about Big Time or his hunting companion or gun safety, but about the Extreme Media itself - what NR editor Rich Lowry aptly captures as "bloated with its own self-importance and fond of the taste of blood after bringing down a president. The qualities attributed to Cheney — arrogant, out of touch, consumed with a dark, paranoiac worldview — all belong to the Imperial Press in its self-regarding glory." And while that is certainly true to garish proportions, I prefer to indulge my fondness for contrasts. To wit: the EM/IP is pissed that Dick Cheney, in taking responsibility for what actually happened both at the time and in his Fox interview, didn't behave like Bill Clinton, who would have blamed anybody and everybody else and otherwise ducked and dodged and bobbed and weaved - and enjoyed the full and furiously spinning assistance of that same media elite in the process of evading accountability for his misdeed, accidental or not. Is it any wonder that Cheney feels so uninhibited in his indifference toward the press? Or that the American people at large feel the same way?
I hope Mr. Whittington was wearing a Kevlar vest when he appeared before reporters. Unlike the veep, their "shots" won't be accidents.
The hunter shot by Vice President Dick Cheney said it "was just an accident" and reassured investigators alcohol was not involved, according a county sheriff's report.
In Texas, Harry Whittington "explained foremost there was no alcohol during the hunt and everyone was wearing the proper hunting attire of blaze orange," reported Kenedy County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Gilberto San Miguel Jr.
The county sheriff's office closed its investigation without filing any charges. The department's report supported Cheney's account of the accident that injured the 78-year-old lawyer during a quail hunting trip on a private ranch in Texas.
If you open your window and listen closely, you can probably hear the cursing bellowing forth in network and print media newsrooms across the country, but especially inside the Beltway. All the execrable tabloidesque speculations - that Cheney was drunk, that this incident was staged to cover up an illict affair (Who do "journalists" think he is, Bill Clinton?), that he could be charged with manslaughter or negligent homocide if Mr. Whittington would obligingly croak, and the omnipresent wishful thinking of Bush dumping him as a "political liability" - evaporated yet again, leaving the public at large with a huge new pile of evidence that the press is far more than merely "adversarial," and as a consequence is far less than credible. Which I suppose means that the Bushies are now free to fulfill every last left-wing paranoid conspiracist fantasy ever dreamed up, since reporting of such by the Dick Gregorys and Dana Milbanks of the world won't be taken seriously ever again.
Mr. Whittington put an appropriate epilogue on the latest media tepot tempest:
The man wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident at a south Texas ranch left the hospital today, calling himself "lucky'' and expressing regret for the controversy sparked by the shooting.The video of Mr. Whittington's statement can be viewed here (h/t Double-H).
"You can see what a lucky person I am,'' Austin attorney Harry Whittington said, adding that he and his family are "deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through'' in the aftermath of the Febreuary 11 accident during a quail hunt.
"We send our love and respect to them as they deal with situations that are much more serious than what we have had this week,'' Whittington said after being released from Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi. The accident was "not easy to explain, especially to those who are not familiar with the great sport of quail hunting.''
It's been said in numerous places that the emblematic aspect of this whole thing has been that it wasn't ultimately about Big Time or his hunting companion or gun safety, but about the Extreme Media itself - what NR editor Rich Lowry aptly captures as "bloated with its own self-importance and fond of the taste of blood after bringing down a president. The qualities attributed to Cheney — arrogant, out of touch, consumed with a dark, paranoiac worldview — all belong to the Imperial Press in its self-regarding glory." And while that is certainly true to garish proportions, I prefer to indulge my fondness for contrasts. To wit: the EM/IP is pissed that Dick Cheney, in taking responsibility for what actually happened both at the time and in his Fox interview, didn't behave like Bill Clinton, who would have blamed anybody and everybody else and otherwise ducked and dodged and bobbed and weaved - and enjoyed the full and furiously spinning assistance of that same media elite in the process of evading accountability for his misdeed, accidental or not. Is it any wonder that Cheney feels so uninhibited in his indifference toward the press? Or that the American people at large feel the same way?
I hope Mr. Whittington was wearing a Kevlar vest when he appeared before reporters. Unlike the veep, their "shots" won't be accidents.
posted by JASmius at 1:31 AM
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