NYT-Handling of Accident Creates Tension Between White House Staffs

[stop the bleeding]

Hope this is not a dupe, it is the NYT version of this story

By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: February 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed to signal an effort to defuse the accidental-shooting story with a laugh.

But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work around 7:45 a.m., Mr. Cheney learned that the man he had shot, Harry M. Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Mr. Cheney's spokeswoman said.

No one in Mr. Cheney's office passed the word to Mr. McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary would never have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Mr. Whittington.

It was the latest example of the degree to which Mr. Cheney's habit of living in his own world in the Bush White House — surrounded by his own staff, relying on his own instincts, saying as little as possible — had backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday. Mr. Cheney's staff members have kept their comments to chronological details and to repeating the vice president's written statements.

read more at link


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15veep.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Timefortruth]

then Judith Miller reported

it was Whittington who threw himself in front of the gun in a dramatic suicide attempt....

The rest is subscription so we'll never know, but WH spin reported as fact is a certainty.

[Timefortruth]

1. ignore

[rodeodance]

3. hey, this is wrong--SCott knew but said something about it was Cheney

office who was handling it!!!

But by midday, it was clear that the staffs of the president and the vice president had failed to communicate. Just after arriving at work around 7:45 a.m., Mr. Cheney learned that the man he had shot, Harry M. Whittington, was about to undergo a medical procedure on his heart because his injuries were more serious than earlier believed, Mr. Cheney's spokeswoman said.

No one in Mr. Cheney's office passed the word to Mr. McClellan, senior officials at the White House said, adding that the press secretary would never have joked about the shooting accident if he had known about the turn of events involving Mr. Whittington.

[Pirate Smile]

6. Scott didn't know before the joking bit but he did know before the

press briefing .

[Pirate Smile]

2. Recommended. The article even shows how Bush is afraid to tell Dick

what he doesn't want to hear.

"Even at the most secure meetings in the White House situation room, Mr. Cheney tends to ask questions but leave the participants guessing about his own views — largely, his colleagues say they suspect, for fear of leaks. His movements, once hidden for security reasons, are now often cloaked out of habit. Several senior members of the administration said they were not told of the shooting accident until late Sunday.

Several White House officials said no one among the White House staff, including the chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., felt empowered to dictate how news of the accident would be handled.

Presumably Mr. Bush could have declared how the news would be disseminated, something he does often on policy matters. Until this week, the periodic disconnect between Mr. Cheney's office and the rest of the White House has been the source of grumbling, but rarely open tension. The most notable exception came in August 2002, when Mr. Cheney, delivering a speech about Iraq, spoke so disparagingly about the utility of past United Nations weapons inspections that he left the impression that the administration would never again use inspections in an effort to assess the threat of Saddam Hussein.

In fact, Mr. Bush had decided to try to send inspectors back in, at least for a while, and it was left to Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, to call Mr. Cheney and get him to strike that wording from a speech he was giving a few days later.

In the past five years, Mr. Cheney has grown accustomed to having a power center of his own, with his own miniature version of a national security council staff. It conducts policy debates that often happen parallel those among Mr. Bush's staff. "

"Presumably" the Prez could tell the VP what to do - presumably.

Holy sh@#!

We've all thought it, now they are finally writing about it.

[stop the bleeding]

4. Yep - Darth answers to no one

[kurth]

7. Who hired Dickhead to be the Chimp's boss?

Inquiring minds wanna know...

[MO_Dem]

5. That entire sentence following the word "presumably" is really bizarre

"something he often does on policy matters"! Sounds pretty cut and dried that shrubbie is just window dressing (yuuucckkkk! shrubbie can only look good when compared to cheney!)

[Theduckno2]

8. His own little world.

The one with Iraqi WMDs, an insurgency in its last throes, where torture is necessary, and where electing a democrat would increase our chances of being hit again.

What an ugly little world(mind) he has to live in(with).

[deacon]

9. orange tie??? does he show up with the board game Operation

tomorrow??? what an asshole.......

[DearAbby]

10. But bu bu....I dont remember anyone electing CHENEY AS PRESIDENT

Correct me if I am wrong here...But chimp is the boss isn't He?

Just what we have all thought, Bush is a puppet and this proves it. Cheney answers to no one.

[cantstandbush]

11. Guess who is going to win this? The REAL President of the US.

Halliburton always comes out on top!

[Pirate Smile]

12. kick