Should've gone fishin' instead
A few random thoughts on the story du jour, the Vice President's weekend "hunting" accident. My apologies, Liberals, in advance:
Let's all agree that the Vice President is a lousy quail hunter. Then let's put this white-hot spotlight back where it belongs, and get to the bottom of some issues that truly matter to us all.
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(p.s. I will admit that the most interesting "conspiracy theory" I've run across was left by a commenter at Doug Ireland's site. The writer noted:
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(p.p.s. And I'll grant that this editorial in the New York Times does have a point. The Times concludes:
1) Most conspiracy theorists would have put "accident" in quotation marks. But it seems to me the key story is that riding in a car to shoot slow, dimwitted birds at the side of the road with a scatter-gun isn't really "hunting" - it's more like three drunk frat boys out for a cruise, doing something they'll regret in the morning. Doug Ireland's post Monday seems to confirm that thought, at least from a hunter's point of view.If I'm wrong, and a heated investigation of this story turns out to be the key event that topples the Bush Administration, I'll humbly eat crow - or quail. But I'd hate to see an inordinate amount of energy, focus, or passion directed at this incident as if it's the most serious thing Mr. Cheney - or anyone in this Administration - has done to dishonor his office and threaten the safety of America.
2) Which is a way of saying that there's nothing much here other than a careless accident with a gun, among people with guns, in a nation that's in love with guns. Cheney has probably handled guns all his life, has a wealth of experience hunting (and "hunting") with guns, and (oops!) finally made a mistake with a gun. That's what happens eventually with guns. That's why those of us who are against guns are against guns.
Sure, the rate of hunting accidents in Texas is low (2.7 per 100,000), but somebody makes up that 2.7 every year! Dick's number was up - and I don't see much beyond that.
3) Suspicious time delay in reporting it? Well, yeah, depending on whether or not you believe the Veep's first responsibility is to alert the Washington press corps. The guy unknowingly violated a game license requirement, had a careless firearm accident, and spoke with his high-powered attorneys about how best to handle things. His people let Dubyah's people know in a reasonable period of time, once they had some answers they were likely to be asked.
A lot of us would call that, unh, responsible. Regular readers of this site know exactly how I feel about the entire Bush Administration, but c'mon. The man knew he was accountable for a serious accident, took immediate steps to get medical attention for his friend, assessed the legal ramifications, and notified key contemporaries before inviting the world to share.
Which means... it's nice to be rich and have a staff. No news here. Let's thank God nobody was killed, let their lawyers work out the settlement and fines, and maybe have a rational public debate about gun control and firearm safety.
Beyond that, move on. We shouldn't forget that one of our standard bearers once had a little "accident" in which a young woman's life was actually lost - and there was a serious "information delay" involved in that case as well. Oh I know he wasn't the Vice President of the United States at the time. But is the Cheney incident a more unforgivable human f#%k-up than that event?
It looks foolish and desperate to try and make this into a "Gotcha!" moment - as I've seen many bloggers trying so hard to do - without simultaneously condemning the glamorization and pervasiveness of guns in our culture. We've allowed them to proliferate. Eventually, one of them will go off in the wrong hands.
4) This incident has inspired some of the most insipid, sophomoric "humor" I've ever seen. Specific jeers to the "notable" bloggers at the Huffington Post. It actually makes me mad that these "invited elite" would waste our time with what amount to bad adolescent jokes, while many of the web's best and most incisive writers toil away in relative obscurity. Grrrrrrrrrr. Guess I just hate to see bad material by widely visible contributors who can and should do better.
5) Ah yes, the wounded Washington press corps. I'm delighted to see them rallying around an issue, passionate, defiant, giving Scotty a good whack on the head. Lord knows, nobody deserves it more. You especially have to love David Gregory's fiery "Don't be a jerk" line. Shades of Patrick Henry. Pass me a Kleenex, will ya!
But where is this same spirit when it comes to the bigger issues in this nation that really matter? Will we see this fire, this passion, this relentlessness over McClellan's evasiveness concerning... well, concerning everything? Why the press corps has chosen to be all-a-flutter over this story is beyond me, but if it signals a new aggressiveness in getting some facts from this Administration, then we should all be thankful.
Don't hold your breath, though.
Let's all agree that the Vice President is a lousy quail hunter. Then let's put this white-hot spotlight back where it belongs, and get to the bottom of some issues that truly matter to us all.
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(p.s. I will admit that the most interesting "conspiracy theory" I've run across was left by a commenter at Doug Ireland's site. The writer noted:
Anne Armstrong - on whose ranch the shooting took place - was an original member of the FISA Court under President Reagan. She may still be a member, We don't know since it is a secret court. Harry Whittington is a cantakerous old lawyer from Austin Texas who may also be a member of the Court. We all know that Cheney likes to "go hunting" with judges that are about to hear a case wherein he is the defendant (see: Scalia and the Energy Committee meetings). Whittington may have been asked to pre-emptively rule on the NSA matter and refused. This could just be a "shot over the bow" of the other judges on the FISA Court who have been asked to issue a ruling on the legal (sic) of the wiretaps.Now that one might just be worth a look or two. Time will tell.)
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(p.p.s. And I'll grant that this editorial in the New York Times does have a point. The Times concludes:
The vice president appears to have behaved like a teenager who thinks that if he keeps quiet about the wreck, no one will notice that the family car is missing its right door. The administration's communications department has proved that its skills at actually communicating are so rusty it can't get a minor police-blotter story straight. And the White House, in trying to cover up the cover-up, has once again demonstrated that it would rather look inept than open.Amen.)
posted by Bob P @ 3:45 AM
4 Comments:
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this incident is that one of the net's better bloggers - you - seem to have missed the import of the shooting and the way it was handled. If I were a comedian, I'd say, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition," as the Fort Worth paper once headlined the claim of self defense by a woman who peppered her husband with nine bullets. But since I'm merely a lowly pundit, I will just note that the entire affair is something of an allegory for the Bush administration's failures, incompetence, dishonesty, secretiveness.
Rather than a tempest in a teapot, it is a magnifying glass for so much that ails the administration. And, in this case at least, it's easy to see and understand the failure. I think it gives Americans who don't read the news as if their lives depend on it and don't follow politics as if their incomes depend on it, an instant insight into how this administration does business.
And that's important. So now I'll say it: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition."
Indeed, Jon Stewart used the incident in Monday's monologue - which was in fact a 'trialogue as it included bits with two 'fake news reporters' - as a metaphor for how Bush bamboozled Americans into supporting the invasion of Iraq.
It was as sharp an editorial as anything I've seen and slipped instantly past the audience's spin defenses. It made me think that we're fast approaching a social stage where life mirrors comedy and we're moving back to the future.
I'm reminded of the old saw: for want of a nail, the house collapsed . . . "
Point taken, my friend.
I'd be willing to admit that I may have been a bit too dismissive of this incident, and you are right that it is the Bush Administration in microcosm - the reckless action followed by secretive micromanagement of facts followed by stonewalling.
And if it has given those less diligent about following the real news an instant summary of the failures of this Administration, that's good as well.
I still, however, am bothered by the feeding frenzy over this story to the exclusion of the more serious crimes of Bush, Cheney, and friends. It's not the frenzy itself - it's more the misplaced focus of that attention, in a story that will eventually amount to very little.
I mean, look at Think Progress today. There's a concerted effort to build a case that Dick and pals were drunk at the time of the accident. The smoking gun? Cheney's admission that at a lunchtime barbecue he had a beer! Or other "theories" I've seen about a mistress, a "message" to the FISA court members, and a "warning" to Scooter to keep his lips sealed.
This is exatly the kind of overreaching that gets thrown back in our faces, as in, "Look at those hysterical, obsessed Liberals at it again, trying to bring down the Vice President over this!" When the frenzy turns out to be much ado about nothing (despite the correctness of your "microcosm" theory), it only weakens the credibility of Administration opponents, and becomes damaging to our ability to pursue the huge issues that need pursuit.
We may already be seeing an example of this developing, with the distressing news that Senate opponents of the NSA wiretapping program may back off from their earlier insistence on an investigation - concidentally after private conversations with the Veep himself. Sympathy arising from the "tempest in a teapot"? I don't know - but the fact that these meetings have gone on essentially unnoticed while we salivated over news of "missing 7-dollar licenses" and "birdshot vs. buckshot" tutorials says something about a lack of focus.
Thanks as always for an insightful critique - and for the initial compliment. I think. :-)
As people in the '60s would have said, "Two for Bono."
In other words, touche - or you're right.
Well put, young man.
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