Posted on 02/14/2006 5:31:24 PM PST by jmc1969
They may try but it won't fly. Mary Jo died, and Fat Teddy tried to get someone else to take the rap, his cousin Joe Gargan to be exact. Odd that the press has given Fatboy a pass for 25 years for KILLING someone, but Cheney is getting "the treatment."
"You are wrong.
The Vice President of the United States was involved in a shooting incident, and that's news...even when the people involved don't run a country"
I never said it wasn't news and I never said it shouldn't be reported
I said the over reaction from the WH Press Corp was way overboard and out of line and not professional
And though you may think I am wrong and want to side with David Gregory's hissy fit .. it looks like others agree with me
The shooting party (Tony Blankley)
The Washington Times ^ | 2-15-06 | Tony Blankley
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1578825/posts
The boys of 'Scoop', hot on the hunt (LOL! Wes Pruden nails it!)
The Washington Times ^ | 2-14-06 | Wesley Pruden
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1578078/posts
Throw a blue dress into this discussion, and I am going to pass out from the reverse deja vu.....
It is not even the same thing. This was not a deliberate cover up and the press was informed. The local media was told about the incident, but the poor WH press corp got their feelings hurt because they weren't told first??? The VP and his SS and others were more concerned about getting his friend to the hospital. Could it have been handled differently, of course but to act like this is in any way like the "blue dress" incident is bizarre. Besides the media didn't get near as worked up over that issue than they have this one. Cheney's was an accident, Clinton's was a full "blown" planned event.
Hey, we also have some saying that this "occurred in Cheney's private life". Where have we heard that one before?
And we've had agonizing efforts to somehow stake the position tht Cheney was not careless - as if the gun somehow discharged itself, just as SUVs jump curbs and hit pedestrians.
This is turning into high farce in a hurry, and it really shows the problems all around nowadays in politics. What is missing is rational behavior all around:
- Careless hunting causes an accident.
- The release of this news is poorly managed.
- The press goes into full jackal mode and completely overreacts to such.
- The moonbats start crafting whacked-out conspiracy theories.
- And the knee-jerk attackers go after anyone offering a reasonable critical assessment of the process - even a seasoned PR professional spokesman like Ari Fleisher, without stopping once to think through what he has said.
- And any criticism becomes a desire to have Cheney's head, when it is offered to simply point out the errors in judgement that happened here, so that they might be avoided in the future.
Theater of the absurd.
There are few bigger supporters of this administration than me in this forum, and I don't like the way this was handled.
I expect this administration to be heads and shoulders above the previous in every aspect, and in this case, they haven't been.
The WH Press corp is there to report everything that relates to the White House, the vice President's press staff is there to handle every bit of news that involves the vice president...they didn't do their job, and yes, the WH press corp should have been advised.
"The VP and his SS and others were more concerned about getting his friend to the hospital."
They weren't sufficiently upset or concerned to cancel their dinner Saturday night.
There is no spinning this, it was a huge political blunder that paints Cheney as uncaring and aloof.
From the original reports. I didn't think that this guy's life was in danger, then I hear that some pellets were lodged near his heart, and that he had suffered a small heart attack as a result of the shooting.
Had he died, Dick Cheney would have been even on equal grounds with Ted Kennedy...that is unacceptable.
No he wouldn't. Dick Cheney didn't leave his friend lying on the gorund to bleed to death. He got him to the hospital immediately. Teddy Kennedy left his friend unconscious in a partially submerged automobile and went home whil the tide came up and killed her.
The two situations are not in any way analagous.
By the woman who owns the ranch were the accident happened hours after it happened.
SATURDAY, FEB. 11
4 p.m.: Cheney begins an afternoon quail hunt with four other hunters on the private Armstrong Ranch in south Texas. They had been hunting earlier in the day, but took a break for lunch.
6:30 p.m.: Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter Harry Whittington while aiming for a bird. Secret Service agents and medical personnel with Cheney tend to wounds on Whittington's face, neck and chest.
7:20 p.m.: An ambulance takes Whittington to a Christus Spohn Hospital Kleburg.
7:30 p.m.: White House chief of staff Andy Card tells President Bush there was an accident, but Card is unaware Cheney was involved.
What the hell is up with that? How can Card NOT KNOW who was involved in that shooting? It's his friggin' job to know the details!!!
7:50 p.m.: The head of the Secret Service office in McAllen, Texas, calls the Kenedy County sheriff to report the accident. The sheriff asks to speak to Cheney, and they schedule an interview for 9 a.m. Sunday. (Excuse me? I wouldn't get to tell a LEO when I would be available to discuss a shooting where I pulled the trigger.) At the White House, presidential aide Karl Rove tells Bush that Cheney was the shooter, after talking to ranch owner Katharine Armstrong.
Saturday evening: Cheney and the rest of the hunting party sit down for dinner at the ranch (This does not point to overwhelming concern from Cheney.). At some point, sheriff's deputies who heard reports of the ambulance responding to an accident at the ranch stop at the front gate to see if anyone needs help, but are told no one needs assistance. The Secret Service earlier had said the deputies were seeking to interview Cheney, but on Tuesday they said that was not the case. Armstrong says no one at the dinner discussed announcing the accident to the public because they were all focused on Whittington's well being.
9:15 p.m.: Whittington is flown to Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial and is treated in the intensive care unit.
SUNDAY, FEB. 12
6 a.m.: White House press secretary Scott McClellan is awakened by a phone call from the White House situation room, informing him Cheney was the shooter. McClellan contacts the vice president's office and urges that the information be made public quickly. (Someone with brains finally gets involved!!!)(
9 a.m.: Kenedy County sheriff's deputies interview Cheney. Armstrong begins calling a reporter (twelve hours have passed.) at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and leaving messages. Armstrong says she told Cheney she wanted to tell the local paper what happened, and he agreed.
12 noon: The reporter returns Armstrong's call.
2:48 p.m.: The Corpus Christi Caller-Times posts a short report about the accident on its Web site after confirming the account with the vice president's office.
3:34 p.m.: The Associated Press, following up on the local story, moves a news alert about the shooting.
Early Sunday evening: Cheney visits Whittington in the hospital before flying back to Washington.
MONDAY, FEB. 13
1:15 p.m.: Cheney takes part in an Oval Office meeting with Bush and the United Nations secretary-general, but leaves before reporters are brought in.
3 p.m.: Whittington is moved from intensive care to a "step-down" unit.
5 p.m.: The chief deputy sheriff for Kenedy County says the shooting is being handled as a hunting accident.
6:20 p.m.: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issues its hunting accident report, which says the main contributing factor was a "hunter's judgment factor" when Cheney sprayed his fellow hunter while aiming at flying birds. The report says both Cheney and Whittington were violating state game law because they did not have required $7 upland game bird stamps. Both are issued warning citations.
7:20 p.m.: The vice president's office issues a statement saying it was not aware that Cheney needed the $7 stamp and that he has sent a check for that amount to the state. (This they react to within an hour.)
TUESDAY, FEB. 14
7:30 a.m.: Hospital officials estimate this is when Whittington suffered a "silent heart attack" without realizing it. It was caused by a shotgun pellet that moved in or near his heart. Cheney is told shortly afterward that doctors have decided to perform a cardiac catheterization.
10 a.m.: Doctors perform the procedure. Whittington is back in the intensive care unit and told he will probably need to stay at the hospital another week for observation.
12:30 p.m.: Cheney's chief of staff passes him a note that Whittington's doctors will be holding a news conference in 30 minutes.
1 p.m.: Hospital officials announce the heart problem. Cheney watches on television.
1:30 p.m.: Cheney calls Whittington to wish him well and offer assistance.
Badly handled, incredibly badly handled.
They would be made analogous as a result of the mishandling of the incident by Cheney's press people.
THAT'S what I have a problem with...I demand that this administration handle things better than they handled this.
I agree.
And in Kennedy's case, it was a car, not a gun, a woman, not a man, and Mass not Texas.
Other than that, it was a careless incident which caused harm to someone and was not handled as properly and expeditiously as we are entitled to expect from our elected officials.
Mo...I understand that others agree with you on this, that does not mean that I agree with them.
The two incidents are not even similar
Both are incidents where carelessness was involved, and an elected official accidentally hurt another person.
The handling of the news of each event was not proper, and in that aspect, they are similar.
Besides not knowing the answer to this, I have not even heard the question presented.
I thought I read over the weekend that some woman with the last name of McBride was taking the calls at the White House.
Maybe somebody else knows and will enlighten us both.
Ted Kennedy left the scene of the accident. That's a crime in itself. Cheney didn't do that. Kennedy delayed telling the authorities. Cheney didn't do that either. Cheney took responsiblity, Kennedy tried to get someone else to take responsibility.
I agree - the press has not handled this well. But the President and Vice President (or anyone else) have no obligation to share anything that happens in their personal lives with the press. The press might not like it, but that's the facts.
The problem with the media is they are use to their prima donas who are more concern about their press clippings regardlesss how their actions affect others.
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