I have it on excellent authority that future Vice Presidential motorcades will include not only the ambulance that currently follows Mr. Cheney around wherever he weaves, but a state-of-the-art hearse in case he kills someone during recreation period and rapid removal and burial is required. The deathmobile will be driven by a young Republican chosen at random from Ken Mehlman's bobsled team.
P.S. I wrote the above before the press conference where doctors informed the media that Harry Whittington had suffered a minor heart attack, and that birdshot had irritated his heart muscles. There goes Douglas Brinkley's "crack a few jokes at your expense" strategy, and it's interesting to see the tonal divisions at Fox News, where Brit Hume treated the last story last night with his usual lordly scoffing, only to run aground against the newest Fox all-star, Robert Novak, who said that this is serious and that it's troublesome for the White House because the coverup fits into the narrative of a secretive administration that feels it owes no one explanation. This afternoon the afternoon hosts on Fox brought Hume back for instant commentary following the doctors' press conference, and he was still being dismissive and shrugging about it, and the hosts clearly weren't buying it. They understood, as Hume refused to understand, that the words "heart attack," even prefaced with "minor," change the dynamic and deepen the significance of Cheney's misfire. The most ludicrous thing Hume said was that though this new information made Whittington's condition more serious, it didn't alter "the underlying facts of the case." It seems to me that if Whittington suffers permanent injury or dies from the accidental shooting, that would create an overlying fact that renders the "underlying facts" irrelevant.
The question the press should ask itself when it has time to pause and (ha-ha) reflect is: Why has Dick Cheney been allowed to be secret-agent vice president since 9/11? Everyone foolishly accepted that he needed to be in an undisclosed location in case of terrorist attack, but there hasn't been a terrorist attack and Cheney has used the 9/11 moment as a permanent opaque bullet-proof shield between himself and accountability on everything pertaining to his office. Has there ever been an administration where the vice president was more aloof, arrogant, and stealthier than the president himself? As Dana Bash said the other night on CNN, the vice president's office routinely refuses to let anyone know what the veep's schedule is, what his travel plans are, who he's meeting with, etc. They didn't know he was spending the weekend shooting quail and the occasional fellow hunter until the news broke in Texas. He's an elected official, which he seems to have forgotten, as has the press, as has the Republican Party, as have the American people.
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http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2006/02/keep_a_coffin_h.php
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