The Vice President doesn't owe an apology.
But his office did not handle this well - just think if VP Gore had shot somebody - I would certainly have expected his office to promptly explain.
As Harry Reid withheld his stroke for three days! Bull!
"The Vice President doesn't owe an apology. But his office did not handle this well."
Amen. This is a story about the media not about a shooting. No one is asking any questions at all about the shooting.
Nobody is suggesting that Cheney had a 12ga instead of a 28. No one is suggesting that the victim is a Democrat about to come out of the closet and the VP shot him for it.
No one is suggesting that the shot came from the grassy knoll.
In short there is NO STORY here about the shooting. The flap is about how it was diseminated, but since it's is clearly about a subject that not one single journalist is writing about (who the victim is, what his relationship is to the VP, what was the motive, is Ken Lay involved)... then it doesn't matter one whit how it was given to the press.
Now if Cheney shot Harry Reid or John Kerry and didn't tell anyone for 18 hours, then that would be a story!
If he shot Howard Dean, no one would care of course.