Split-Level "Ooops"

Somebody please help me understand this.

The current Vice President of the United States is involved in a quail hunting accident over the weekend. His "victim" was not seriously injured and is recovering. Could it have been a tragedy instead? Possibly. Was it? No. And is it, or the eighteen-hour delay in its reporting, or the fact that it wasn't first reported to the White House press corps, a "scandal"? Puh-leeze.

Compare this to his predecessor, who spent the weekend in the country that produced three-quarters of the 9/11 hijackers spinning al-Jazeera-esque yarns to an audience that already hates our guts. Or "the 30-hour delay - presided over by Hillary Clinton, according to internal records - in releasing the late White House counsel Vincent Foster's suicide note to authorities and her own husband." Or to the following 2001 incident, also involving the Queen of Mean:

[T]he media didn't think it was such a big deal five years ago, when Senator Hillary Clinton injured a police officer who was manning a security post at the Westchester County Airport while she was rushing to a fundraiser.

On October 14, 2001, Clinton's Ford conversion van blew past a security checkpoint manned by Officer Ernest Dymond, who said later that he immediately feared a repeat of the September 11 attacks.

"The van went by me and we ordered them to stop and it continued going and we continued to yell to stop," said Dymond. "I didn't know if we had a terrorist," he told the Washington Times.

The quick-thinking cop grabbed the door of Mrs. Clinton's vehicle and hung on for dear life - banging away on the window until her Secret Service driver stopped.

Injured in the process, Dymond was unable to return to work for weeks.

The difference between the former and the latter? Why, same as always - total media blackout of Hillary's foible and coverups and Fat Albert's outrages, and a full-court "press" on Dick Cheney.

The "what" isn't hard to grasp at all. Nor is the "why". It's the "how" that baffles me.

Given the rate at which network news ratings and major newspaper circulations are plummeting, though, that's a conundrum that is steadily becoming irrelevant.

UPDATE: Big Time is going to "break his silence" tonight on "Shootgate," or whatever the hell the oafish Extreme press is calling this thing. But the televised interview will be on Fox News, so that won't count.

UPDATE 2/16: Did I call it or did I call it?:

"Doing an exclusive interview with any single news organization is not enough. The Vice President hasn’t had a press conference in three and a half years and he ought to have one to clear the air not only on this issue, but more importantly on the many other issues that have been shrouded by a veil of secrecy. The press corps and American people deserve answers, not avoidance from this Administration."

So reads a statement released by Senator Chucky Schumer's office. Betcha if Big Time had gone on 60 Minutes that would have counted.

This also speaks to why the veep shouldn't even have done the Fox interview. "This Administration's" detesters will never be appeased. If Cheney held a presser and gave as good as he got, Chucky would gripe that the VP "isn't listening" and "doesn't get it" and "is unrepentant." He would be expected to mutely stand there and let the imperious White House press corps pound the bejesus out of him unopposed about the whole gamut of "many other issues," for which "Quail-gate" would simply serve as the pretext.

Bottom line is the Left hasn't been able to touch Cheney because he's seen as the epitome of competence. Shooting a hunting companion by accident clouds that image. Is it any wonder that the Extreme Media and its elected counterparts see a thousand Halliburtons dancing before their eyes?