First of all, if each and every reporter had been personally contacted by Cheney himself, it would not have reduced their rabid dog frenzy about this story one iota, if anything, catering to the massive egos like little Davy Gregory and his pals would (in their minds) suggest that the Vice President was in a position of weakness and as "friendly" as they have been to this Administration, that would only encourage them to attack with even greater ferocity.
Second, no matter what the Vice President and/or his staff did or said, the White House Press Corpse would still have been hammering McClellan on this story, because there are ripe possibilities for a rewarding game of "gotcha" and "Prez said/Vice-Prez said", and they would like nothing better than to instigate even minor disagreements between the President and his VP, either personally, or at the staff level. Don't we know by now that the press views this Administration as their own personal enemy? They do!
Ari, Marlin and past press secretaries (oh my, did I forget David Gergen?!? *gasp*) need to STFU because they are not privy to what is or is not going on behind the scenes, McClellan is making the best of a bad situation, and while he isn't my idea of a great press secretary, he's got the job, and he's doing the best he can.
The only thing Vice President Cheney needs to do, is to send the same message to these howling hounds of media-hell as he sent to Senator Leaky Leahy back in 2003(?), which was "Go F--K Yourselves".
Third and finally, the most important issue here is the recovery of Harry Whittington, this was a terrible accident, and fortunately nobody was killed.
Unlike in July 1969.
Exactly!