The Return of the Senior White House Officials
Who’s talking this time? McClellan? Rove? Somebody is – and they’re using the Washington Post to pressure Cheney to play the little ‘I’m sorry’ game:
Vice President Cheney’s slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials to press Cheney to publicly address the issue as early as today, several prominent Republicans said yesterday.
The Republicans said Cheney should have immediately disclosed the shooting Saturday night to avoid even the suggestion of a coverup and should have offered a public apology for his role in accidentally shooting Harry Whittington, a GOP lawyer from Austin.
I’m sorry, too – sorry the accident happened, sorry Cheney didn’t release the information immediately, but most of all, sorry about the sorry state of what passes for news these days. Yes, it’s a front-pager when the Vice President shoots someone, even by accident – but time to move on, folks, there’s nothing to see here. How this incident can be analyzed over and over and played like it’s the Teapot Dome scandal is really quite beyond me.
There are many, many pressing issues facing our nation – when’s the last time you saw a good piece on what’s going in with the attempts to form a government in Iraq? How’s that plan to put UN peacekeepers into Darfur going? What are we going to do about our increasing indebtedness to China? And yet, we get this stupid hunting story, hot on the heels of a stupid cartoon story (the only saving grace of the Cheney affair is that it finally moved that ignorant controversy off the front pages).
Cheney should come out, make a statement (and he probably will have to, at this point), take no questions, and then…nothing. Finis…
For the nature of this incident, and its impact with respect to anything of any importance, “breaking” the story within 18 hours IS “immediate”.
“Political liability”? Please… in Moonbat-land, maybe.
Former GOP White House Press Secretaries And PR Experts Blast Cheney Shooting Handling
Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House are now coming under intense criticism from several prominent former Republican White House press secretaries and public relations experts for the way the press and public learned that Cheney had accident…
Somehow, I have the feeling that if Cheney had been the one shot, this story would be over by now…how sad is that?
The whole thing could have been avoided, for sure, by a clear and unequivocal disclosure. Personally I don’t really care.
The bigger story for me is the hyperventilating huff that the White House Press Pool have fomented into. Is it me or do they sound like a whiny, wounded bunch of windbags who are offended that they weren’t told the story first?
An interesting juxtaposition of questions:
“when’s the last time you saw a good piece on what’s going in with the attempts to form a government in Iraq? How’s that plan to put UN peacekeepers into Darfur going? What are we going to do about our increasing indebtedness to China?”
The answers:
1) What’s going on with the government in Iraq is this week marked the Shiite-led appointment of the prime minister, who has extensive ties with Tehran (so this is what 2250 Americans died for — so Iran can extend its influence in the Middle East?)
2) As far as I can tell, nothing is going on
3) Ditto: it gets worse with every treasury auction
So while the Cheney shooting incident may be a diversion, the “real news” isn’t much better for the Bush administration –
TMS-
You give the press corps far too much credit.
An instantaneous, clear and unequivocal disclosure (which, as ‘cb’ says, is basically what we had!!) would have changed exactly one thing: the minor details of the faux outrage du jour.
I share your impression of the White House Press Pool. Yesterday Scott McClellan chided a reporter that he was trying to make it “all about you” — the Press corps should be careful what they wish for.
There are plenty of outrageous things Cheney has done, faux and vrai. I think that delaying the release of the story (presumably to avoid the Sunday morning news shows) is fairly low on the list, but the ham-fisted response makes things look worse than they should.
Regarding the White House press corps: do you think that Clinton got better treatment from the press than Bush?
Another Black Eye For The MSM
In the absence of any pressing news these days — other than Iran’s nuclear weapons development crisis, the election of Hamas terrorists in Palestine, ongoing worldwide Muslim riots and killing in reaction to a cartoon, Al Gore’s near sedition while …