I agree. The 18 hour media delay is nothing much. Rove handles politics, media, the public face of the government. Cheney administers the government. As a public matter it was Rove's balliwick. But I can't see Cheney meekly letting Rove tell him what to do and say. Probably took them awhile to negotiate on how they were going to handle it.

Cheney was engaged in a very private social occation, staying at a ranch with some friends and shooting quail. Cheney got careless and shot his friend and hunting partner. It's a personal tragedy. And would remain a private matter for most people.

Probably wouldn't have been such a big story if Cheney wasn't so unpopular. (He's real low in the polls.) And he lives such a private life that the media jumped all over a little rip in the curtain.

But it was just a hunting accident. He does the bad stuff during regular working hours.

Me too. Two hands and only one mouth.

Was vice president sending 'Godfather'-style message?

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A North Carolina columnist claimed today Dick Cheney's shooting of friend Harry Whittington was not an accident, but was meant to be a message to his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, not to testify against the vice president in the Valerie Plame leak investigation.

"Accident my eye. Or rather, Harry Whittington's eye," writes Barry Saunders in the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer.

"If you believe it was just an accident that Vice President Dick Cheney shot his hunting companion last weekend, you obviously have never seen 'The Godfather' movies."

Continued Saunders in his column: "Just as surely as a fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest means 'Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes,' that shotgun blast to Whittington's face was meant to convey that I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby had better bite his tongue and forget about testifying against Cheney, his former boss, in the Valerie Plame spy case."

Libby has been indicted on federal charges he lied to investigators probing the leak of Plame's identity to the media. Last week, prosecutors reported he told a grand jury that superiors authorized him to disclose classified information to reporters because they were angered about Plame's husband's opposition to the Iraq war.

Vice President Dick Cheney

"A vice president who'll shoot an ally to get across his message of omerta – that's mobspeak for 'hush up' – may be considered a national disgrace by some," writes Saunders. "Not by me. I embrace the prospect of a lead-slingin' veep. Think of the impact Cheney's shot heard 'round the world will have on America's diplomatic efforts. When obstinate countries declare their unwillingness to negotiate with Secretary of State Condi Rice, all we have to do is roll out Deadeye Dick."

Whittington, Cheney's hunting buddy who was shot, had a mild heart attack today in the hospital where he is recovering from pellet wounds.

"Some of the bird shot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart in what we would say is a minor heart attack," Peter Banko, the administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Texas. told a news conference outside the hospital today.


URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48825
Image: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/images2/dickcheney1.jpg

For a chuckle, see this: www.toonedin.com/cheney.html

RUN!!!HE'S GOT A GUN!!!

Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue writes that secret service agents say Cheney was "clearly inebriated" when he shot his hunting partner.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8184.shtml

RUN!!HE'S DRUNK AN HAS A GUN!!!

Texas Bill to Regulate the Hunting and Harvesting of Attorneys


370.01 Any person with a valid in-state rodent or snake hunting license may also hunt and harvest attorneys for recreational and sport (non-commercial) purposes.

370.02 Taking of attorneys with traps or deadfalls is permitted. The use of United States currency as bait, however, is prohibited.



370.03 Stuffed or mounted attorneys must have a state health department inspection for rabies, and vermin.
370.04 The willful killing of attorneys with a motor vehicle is prohibited, unless such vehicle is an ambulance being driven in reverse. If an attorney is accidentally struck by a motor vehicle, the dead attorney should be removed to the roadside, and the vehicle should proceed immediately to the nearest car wash.



370.05 It is unlawful to chase, herd or harvest attorneys from a power boat, helicopter or aircraft.
370.06 It is unlawful to shout, "WHIPLASH", "AMBULANCE", or "FREE SCOTCH" for the purposes of trapping attorneys.
370.07 It is unlawful to hunt attorneys within 100 yards of BMW, Mercedes or Porsche dealerships, except on Wednesday afternoon.



370.08 It is unlawful to hunt attorneys within 200 yards of courtrooms, law libraries, health clubs, country clubs, hospitals or brothels.



370.09 If an attorney gains elective office, it is not necessary to have a license to hunt, trap or possess the same.
370.10 It is unlawful for a hunter to wear a disguise as a reporter, drugdealer, pimp, female legal clerk, sheep, accident victim, bookie, physician, chiropractor or tax accountant for the purpose of hunting attorneys.



370.11 Bag and Possession Limits per day:
Yellow-bellied sidewinders, 2;
Two-faced tortfeasors, 1;
Back-stabbing divorce litigators, 3;
Horn-rimmed cut-throats, 2;
Minutiae-advocating dirtbags, 4.
Honest attorneys protected (Endangered Species Act).