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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-02-14

On The Cheney Shooting Thing

I've been sitting back on this story for a few days, just watching what happens with it. And here, for what it's worth, is my take on how various groups are viewing the incident.

Average Joe: Cheney shot a guy? Really? Wonder what Letterman's gonna say about it. Say, did my Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue get here today?

Letterman: actually, not very funny about it, but it's still early in the week. (haven't been able to watch Leno the last couple nights because of the Olympics)

Hunters and Fishers: Aw, that's nothing--I once took a mouthful of birdshot at twenty paces and managed to turn and fring the damn thing down by spitting the shot . . . Still, pretty dumb.

Bush haters: Well, sure--Cheney's always drunk!! You should never give the guy a gun!

White House Press Corps: WHAT ABOUT ME??? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME FIRST?

Me, personally? Well, probably not the best thing in the world to be shooting your friend in the face; on the other hand, when the original press accounts of the story contain the line "the birdshot did manage to break the skin . . .", you kinda get an idea of how serious it is. Hell, my daughter's hamster breaks the skin when she bites, and that's not newsworthy. And while I suppose it would have been smarter to issue a statement early on, I hardly think that would have calmed the jackals in the Briefing Room. Actually, handling it the way they have, they've let the Press Corps make themselves the story, and given how the general public views the press these days, that was probably the best bit of spin the White House could have managed.

The real test will be how much mileage is the President able to get out of this incident at the Gridiron Club and other such occasions. Assuming Wittington recovers, this should be good for a lot of laughs.

Then again, maybe he could just show a video of the Press Room . . .
Posted by: Michael / 2/14/2006 11:47:00 PM

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