Alan Dershowitz nails it on Cheney delay.

[edbermac]

This belongs completely in the realm of speculation, but it is speculation based on my own experiences as a criminal lawyer. Why would a media-savvy and clever man like Dick Cheney delay notifying the press and the police about an accident when a) he knew it would eventually be covered by the press and b) he knew he would be criticized for delaying release of the story?

A simple cost/benefit analysis suggests that he (or those advising him) must have believed that there was more to be gained than lost by a 14 hour delay that would eventually be made public. It is likely, therefore, that something happened during that 14 hour period which was worth the negative costs of the delay.

What is the most likely thing to happen during a 14 hour delay that is worth the negative publicity? One possibility is that it takes approximately that period of time for alcohol to dissipate in the body and no longer be subject to accurate testing. It is fairly common for people involved in alcohol-related accidents to delay reporting them until the alcohol has left the body. There is no hard evidence that this is what happened here, but we are entitled to a better explanation. We should be told whether Vice President Cheney's victim had alcohol in his system when he was taken to the hospital. Was there any alcohol at or near the hunting area? Were any in the hunting party carrying flasks (which is apparently common among hunters)? What was Cheney doing just before he went hunting? Did anyone in the hunting party have a drink? We do know that Cheney had two drunk driving convictions when he was in his early 20s, but he has apparently been clean since then.

There are certainly other explanations for the 14 hour delay, but simply postponing the inevitable publication of a damaging story is not one of them. Nor is the fact that Cheney is, by nature, a secretive man. The burden of proof has now shifted to the Vice President to explain why he made this stupid, or very clever, decision. We're waiting for his explanation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/dick-cheneys-delay_b_15715.html

[Nikki Stone 1]

1. This makes the most sense of any explanation for the delay

Recommend

[never_get_over_it]

10. Also dick head might have had

to call Lynne with some splaining to do......

[LeftNYC]

2. CHeney was half in the bag, lets admit it...nt

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. "Half in the bag" ?

I've never heard that expression before.

[LeftNYC]

13. drunk off his ass...nt

[Nikki Stone 1]

21. Ah. Thanks

:)

[giant_robot]

4. Alcohol-impaired judgment would also explain why he chose...

...to take such a poor shot. This wasn't a minor hunting accident. This was a major fuck up.

[Ganja Ninja]

9. or he may not have intentionally fired the gun.

He may have been drunk, mishandled the gun and discharged it accidentally.

[Nikki Stone 1]

30. Agreed

..

[Tom Joad]

5. I see dershy is not on a retainer for cheney.

If he were, cheney could have peppersprayed anyone, on national tv while drinking Jim Beam, even, and dershy would be out defending him.

[thebigidea]

42. he's a real worm (re: torture) but that's a bit silly

of course he would be, he's a LAWYER. Would you want to hire him to defend you only to have him tag team with the prosecution against you in court?

[librechik]

6. in court I believe the 2 previous DWI convictions against Dick

would also be brought into the equation to suggest that the "clean out phase" explanation is correct. In CA, for example, isn't a 3rd alcohol incident extremely damning?

[joeunderdog]

33. "but he has apparently been clean since then."

Now he says he had "one beer." Well, there is NO CURE for alcoholism. You're either on the wagon or actively drinking. There is no limited or social drinking for someone who has shown enough poor judgement and impairment to actually get CAUGHT driving drunk twice. You can't practice drinking--you practice sobriety--to get better.

The likelihood of Dickwad showing constraint to limit himself to ONE BEER would be in stark contrast to the fact that he chose to drink:
1) with a serious heart condition
2) while on medication that likely warns against alcohol consumption
and
3) while freakin HUNTING with a loaded gun

WTF?

[librechik]

36. is Cheney still carrying "the football?"

what if Chunky gets drunk and decides a "lady's gun" isn't firepower enough for what he wants to do???

[liberalnurse]

7. Yeap.....he is right on with this.....

Additionally, no family member has dared to speak up......I'm wondering about hospital staff. Some tabloid will have to pay top dollar for the details!

Cheney wasn't at the hospital to my knowledge so his "stoned behavior" won't be a topic but the strong arming of the family will no doubt evoke whispers.

[sendero]

8. I'm sure...

.. that as soon as Cheney thinks of a good explanation, he'll offer it.

I'd bet $100 to your $10 that Mr. Cheney's blood alcohol level was a problem. There really is no other explanation.

[genie_weenie]

11. Isn't one of the first things a police officer tries to acquire

is blood samples to check for alcohol or other substances in the body which may have caused, aided the crime?
Was this done for Dick?

[Cleita]

15. No. From the reports I have seen, the SS refused the local

law enforcement officers access to the VP.

[genie_weenie]

18. That's pretty suspicious...

I don't think an average citizen would have been able to put off the Police. Can't wait to see what Tricky Dick says on Faux News.

[Cleita]

20. Didn't anyone tell you that they are above the law?

I mean they don't even respect the Constitution, which they have sworn to uphold. Why would they care about any other laws?

[Cleita]

12. So if it's true that the Swiss amabassador is Cheney's

ahem "friend" and that there was alcohol involved, could this have been the act of a jealous lover? From personal experience having, unfortunately been stuck in a car with two drunk old coots in the past, it doesn't take long for the octopus hands to start working. So what if Whittington made some passes to the "friend" and Cheney got jealous and shot him?

This could explain a lot about the delay in reporting this. Some journals need to do some investigative reporting on this involving the FOIA. There are records out there, the SS, the Medics sent with Cheney, the Texas sheriffs and the hospital. The records are out there. Someone needs to get their hands on them before they disappear.

[Pachamama]

29. Act of a jealous lover?

You mean that maybe Katherine Armstrong, Cheney's Swiss Miss actually shot Whittington because he's banging Cheney too? :rofl:

:sarcasm:

Sorry Cleita, couldn't resist that one....

I have to say that this whole story, from the lack of details, the delay, to the inconsistency of the details with Whittington's injuries just don't jive. I mean, who really believes that the Secret Service didn't witness everything? If they didn't, they should be fired as bodyguards....

Also, I will be the first to admit that Cheney being without Lynne on the pre-Valentine day weekend is a bit, how shall we say, not how most "married" men would be spending their weekend unless it is a lover.

Then again, the idea of anyone having sex with Cheney....ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh....:puke:

[Cleita]

34. I know sex with him would be like having sex with a

sweaty Pillsbury dough boy that drools. :puke: I have a feeling with those perverts it's more whips and chains than actual sex.

[Mr_Spock]

14. Dick Cheney - Liar, drunken gun assaulter, treasonous spy ratter

This guy is pure, unadulterated evil, too bad he hadn't accidentally shot himself :(

[Cleita]

17. Metaphorically, he might have shot himself in the foot with this one.

We need to force the truth out of the White House somehow.

[Mr_Spock]

19. Hope he suffers like an injured animal for the remainder of his miserable

existence. This guy has NO redeeming qualities.

Evil is as Evil does.

Cheney is the swawn of Satan.

[submerged99]

16. would give Chimp plausible deniability as well

Chimp probably knew Cheney was drunk as well and is claiming not to have heard from Cheney, or his version of events, until the next day so that, in the case it somehow comes out Cheney was drunk, Chimp wash his hands of the whole fiasco.

[Catrina]

22. If alcohol is going to be a factor in this case, Karl Rove has already

decided how to use it, I'm sure. Well, that's assuming the WH is still interested in keeping Cheney as VP.

Are all accident victims given a BAC test when they get to the hospital? Or do they have to agree.

I wouldn't be surprised if we are told now that Whittington was drunk and that is why he walked into Cheney's gun ~

Another question ~ why was Whittington moved out of ICU when the doctors knew he had a pellet near his heart? To make it seem that he was 'just fine' and the press should go away now?

That seemed like a very bad decision, with the knowledge one of the doctors said they had (re the pellet). Then, he had to go back to ICU. Would moving him like that have caused the pellet to move the way it did? I have no knowledge of these things, which is why I'm asking.

If we start seeing little whisper campaigns about Whittington's drinking habits, we'll know that Rove is behind, imo.

[Nikki Stone 1]

31. Blaming the victim

That would be Rove's style

[Beetwasher]

23. "Feh! All You People Who Suggest That The Delay Is Evidence of a

cover up are just whacky! Whacky I tells ya! WHACKY!!! WHACK WHACK WHACKY!!!"

There, I just saved all the trolls the trouble, you can thank me later.

[July]

28. Good one, Beetwasher! nt

[Garbo 2004]

41. You forgot to add that NO WAY would Crashcart be drinking, not with his

serious heart condition. It's just over the top nonsense for anyone to suggest he was drinking at all. Right? ;)

Now Cheney's admitted to at least one beer at lunch and the chatty Armstrong was quoted by CNN:

Armstrong, a longtime friend of the Cheney family, told CNN before the vice president's interview that she never saw Cheney or Whittington "drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/15/cheney/index.html

She had lunch with Cheney and the others in the hunting party but never saw the beer that Cheney says he had? Sounds like just the kind of "credible eyewitness" Cheney likes. But she volunteers the info that after the shooting he had a cocktail back at the house.

Yeah, no way is Cheney still drinking with his heart condition and all. LOL

[BlueEyedSon]

24. I think they needed to see if the victim could be stabilized.

If he died, the whole thing would have to be spun differently.

[Nikki Stone 1]

25. I think you are right about this

Wonder what the spin would have been.

[gratuitous]

26. Application of Occam's Razor says . . .

The simplest explanation is usually the right explanation. Folks with more criminal experience than me would certainly be familiar with the myriad reasons why a perpetrator would want to delay any official notification of an incident: A need to dispose of incriminating evidence of some kind certainly tops the list. Now, since there seems to be no dispute about the weapon, who was holding it, and who the victim is, that leaves us a few variables that need to be cleared up:

First, the assertion that Whittington was "30 yards away" from Cheney. I'm no ballistics expert, and I have less than zero firearms experience, but how likely is it if I was standing on a football field at the 20-yard-line with a .28 gauge shotgun that I would "pepper" the goalpost in such a tight formation that more than 200 pellets of the 260-odd pellets in a bird shot cartridge would hit the goalpost 30 yards away? Methinks Whittington was standing a smidgen closer than 30 yards away from Cheney at the time the gun went off.

Second, the timing problem. There's no indication that Cheney or anyone else is trying to cover up the fact that Cheney was holding the shotgun that "peppered" the unfortunate Mr. Whittington. So, what purpose would be served by delaying official notification? As we apply Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation is that something else is involved. It could be simple negligence. But I would expect that lapse of judgment more from a scared 14-year-old who'd accidentally plugged his buddy than I would from the vice president of the United States. Is Dick Cheney an irresponsible 14-year-old? I don't think so.

We also have the statement of the hunt's hostess that a beer or two might have been consumed by the hunting party before they drove out to blast a few birds. Considering the minimizing of alcohol consumption that always occurs in recounting these kinds of stories (as opposed to stories where someone is bragging about how much one can drink and hold, a more tragic outcome usually causes folks to understate how much alcohol was consumed), we can probably safely assume that if any alcohol was consumed by the hunting party, it was more than folks are willing to admit later.

If one or more of the hunting party was drunk, and the hunting party desired to cover up that fact, then the 14 hour lapse between the shooting and its reporting makes a great deal of sense. I wonder if anyone will ask Mr. Cheney about this rather considerable delay, and if they do, what Mr. Cheney will say?

[Joey Liberal]

27. The Dick was Drunk n.t

[Swamp Rat]

32. No one can convince me he was NOT drinking.

:D

[Cleita]

35. He admitted having a beer and if he's

the boozer his past DUI record indicates, it was probably after a couple of martinis. Drinkers always lie about their consumption when caught.

[japple]

37. I don'teither. And what does every drunk driver say to the police officer

who pulls them over??? "But officer, I only had one beer." Even if they are knee-walkin, down in the ditch drunk, having to cover one eye so they won't see double drunk. They all only had one beer.

[marions ghost]

38. 'more to be gained than lost

by a 14 hour delay'....

The stories just do not add up. What secret are they protecting?

[Kolesar]

39. Dick Nixon ran America drunk and on dilantin, too

I am amazed that the body of this suffering old heart patient could handled boozing.

[IronLionZion]

43. LBJ and Churchill too

But they could handle a lot of liquor. Churchill started before breakfast.

[Raine]

40. Dead drunk

I have no doubt and it took him that long to sober up! :hangover: