Hunting with Dick Cheney

The antique media is having a field day with this story. Mostly they seem to be harping on why it took the White House 18 hours to say anything about it. They seem to think that this is a major news story. After all, The Drudge Report had it as the banner story for over 36 hours. Right now the Olympics is going on, idiot Muslims are burning embassies over cartoons, we are fighting a war against terrorism, and all the media can talk about is a minor accident between a couple hunting buddies.

I think the story, while potentially serious, is mostly just embarrassing, and maybe even a little funny. Back home in South Dakota and Wyoming this type of story is usually shared along with a few cold brews and starts with the storyteller sporting a sly grin and asking: "Did I ever tell you about that time I shot Harry?" This is the kind of story that starts out embarrassing for the Vice President, but eventually evolves into him one day sitting in a rocking chair, surrounded by his grandchildren while they beg him to tell about the time he went lawyer huntin'.

Understand, this is an historic event. Vice-President Cheney is only the second sitting Vice-President to ever shoot a man while in office. The first was in 1804 when Aaron Burr, Vice-President for Thomas Jefferson, shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a dual. At least Dick and Harry weren't dueling, and Harry sounds like he is recovering well.

But it's time for the antique media to lighten up a little. This evening I heard an NBC news anchor refer to the BUCKshot that the man was shot with. Which just points out the cluelessness of the antique media. Powerline has a report that explains:

Cheney was shooting a 28-gauge shotgun. That's closer to a .410 than a 12-gauge; it's a little gun.

Hunting quail--a little bird--they'd be shooting 6 or 8-shot, I suppose. This is not like shooting 20-lb geese. I suspect that the biggest quail on earth weighs a pound. The point of the tiny shot is to do little damage to the meat. References to "buck-shot" and "B-B"s are ridiculous. At 30 yards, buck and B-Bs might be lethal. The risk with light bird loads is the eyes.

A White House Correspondent continually referred to the Vice-President as "the shooter". Like she thought Vice-President Cheney was hunting quail from the window of the Texas Book Depository.

So if you are looking for some fun with this, Expose the Left is selling a bumper sticker that says:

I would rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy

Cox and Forkum have this cartoon:



Hugh Hewett had this to say:

When I saw the story about Cheney's hunting accident pop up in my e-mail, the first thing I thought was, "when did they start sending Saturday Night Live skits via e-mail?"

Today on his radio show both Hugh and several callers were having a lot of laughs about the whole thing. I don't think it is going to take long for the 'lawyer huntin' stories to start.

Even the White House was making jokes:

President Bush's spokesman quipped Tuesday that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn't be confused for hunter's safety wear.

"The orange that they're wearing is not because they're concerned that the vice president may be there,"

I'm glad that Harry Whittington is stable and recovering. I'm sorry that this accident happened to him. I'm sorry that Vice-President Cheney has to endure the antique media assault that he is going through. I'm sorry that the White House has to take time out from the important things that it should be paying attention to in order to deal with this minor accident. But I would really like to get a nice framed picture of Vice-President Cheney holding his shotgun and standing next to Harry Whittington for the Vice-President to hang on his trophy wall.