Bang

Running for Covey

Brit Hume of Fox News did a good quick first interview with Vice President Dick 'they shoot friends, don't they?' Cheney. You'll recall the announcment of the Saturday afternoon shooting didn't get revealed to 'the press' until Sunday morning. And it came not from Cheney but from the woman who owns the ranch where he and the boys were quail shooting, Mrs. Katherine Armstrong.

Relevant bits:

HUME: Now, the suspicion grows in some quarters that you -- that this was an attempt to minimize it, by having it first appear in a little paper and appear like a little hunting incident down in a remote corner of Texas.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There wasn't any way this was going to be minimized, Brit; but it was important that it be accurate. I do think what I've experienced over the years here in Washington is as the media outlets have proliferated, speed has become sort of a driving force, lots of time at the expense of accuracy. And I wanted to make sure we got it as accurate as possible, and I think Katherine was an excellent choice. I don't know who you could get better as the basic source for the story than the witness who saw the whole thing.

Charming, isn't it, that Cheney is now lecturing the press on the importance of accuracy when he and his office were leaking stories, knowingly false stories, about weapons of mass desctruction in Iraq. Churlish? Forgive moi.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: The decision about how it got out, basically, was my responsibility.

HUME: That was your call.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That was my call.

O-kay...

HUME: ...when, if ever, have you discussed [the shooting] with the President?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I talked to him about it yesterday, or Monday -- first on Monday, and then on Tuesday, too.

Hmm...so the vice president shoots someone. He talks with either Andy Card or Karl Rove on the night of the shooting, visits the guy he shot on Sunday. And doesn't talk to the president about it til...Monday.

I think I am beginning to understand the chain of command now.