Cheney giving ammunition for slanderers? (Tucker Carlson)

[rodeodance]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8063569/

February 16, 2006 | 1:36 p.m. ET

Cheney giving ammunition for slanderers? (Tucker Carlson)

The problem with liberals is not that they dislike the Bush administration, but that they dislike the Bush administration for all the wrong reasons. I could bore you all day with examples, but let's start with the latest White House micro-scandal, Dick Cheney's hunting trip.

Other, more fervid critics see a vast conspiracy at work. Leftwing bloggers (including one of the guests on our show - see video) have suggested that Cheney delayed the announcement of the shooting because his mistress was on the scene. But wait a second: What about all that Clinton-era talk from liberals about how a politician's private life ought to remain private? Forget it. That was then.

Critics are angry that Cheney took so long to inform the press about the shooting of his 78-year-old hunting partner, and that when he did, he had a friend call the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, rather than a big city newspaper or network. To which the obvious response is: Who cares? Cheney was hunting on his own time, on private property. The shooting was an accident. No function of government was impaired. Does the public have a right to know what happened? Yes, and the public does know. Does the New York Times or ABC News have a right to know first? Nope. Protests to the contrary are just vanity, and one of the many reasons people dislike journalists.

Whether or not it's fair to raise it, the allegation is almost certainly wrong anyway. The woman in question brought her husband on the hunting trip. So unless Cheney is a whole lot weirder and more adventurous than any of us ever imagined, he's not sleeping with her. As you may have noticed repeatedly over the past six years, many of the administration's angriest critics are not only monomaniacal, but also badly informed.

[blue cat]

1. He is leaving out the part

that Cheney poured himself a drink after the accident, and didn't go to the hospital, and didn't do a breathilizer just like every other citizen would have to do after a shooting accident. What won't they defend or deflect? The republican party is officially a cult. Not for their followers to worry, their leaders have absolute power and Cheney will never be held accountable.

[WhiteTara]

6. and sent the guy to a podunk hospital

to try and keep it out of the news. But when they found out the hospital would report the shooting anyway, they moved him right on out
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002793.html

Here's just one more unanswered question about Dick Cheney's shooting of his 78-year-old friend last Saturday.

Numerous news accounts in recent years suggest that the vice president, with his history of four heart attacks, is almost always accompanied by a medical team and by Blackhawk helicopters, even when he is hunting in remote rural locations, as he all too frequently does.

Cheney has apparently never needed that type of medical evacuation. But on Saturday, his hunting pal Harry Whittington did. Indeed, news accounts say that Cheney's full-time medical team was on the scene and aided the seriously wounded man.

But where were the Blackhawks? If they were on the Armstrong Ranch, why were they not used for this type of emergency operation that they had long rehearsed? If the Blackhawks were not there, why not, considering they've reportedly been there for his other trips?

Instead, the splayed and profusely bleeding Whittington was driven to a small rural hospital -- even though when he got there, doctors then realized his condition was critical enough to airlift him, by a private helicopter, to the bigger medical center in Corpus Christi.

[DBoon]

2. sorry guys, but after Clinton

the private affairs of elected officials are public concerns

the standard was set with Clinton's impeachment. You started it. You can't go back and undo it.

[Appalachian_American]

3. Tucker must think Cheney will give him an interview or something

What a little weiner he truly is.

I gave him an honest, unbiased chance and watched his boring little show for a short while, but gave up on him completely after hearing him condescend to poor folks who can't afford vcrs or tvs or dvd players, or some such bullshit. He suggested they could pick up cans on the side of the road and get cheap products at Walmart with their recycling efforts while boasting that there were no Walmarts in his neighborhood.

Obviously he's like those in the bush/cheney group that have only led privileged lives and cannot understand or empathize with the poor and middle class people that don't live in the best neighborhoods and don't get to tell the police when or if they will speak to them after they shoot someone, accidentally or otherwise.

[shrike]

4. Not no more they are

The private affairs of public officials.

Thanks to the likes of you, I might add.

[Cha]

5. It's not cheney shooting the

guy in the face, heart, and liver..it's the coverup before reporting it and after.