Loose Cannon

Mike Allen writes on Time.com: "The Vice President was the press strategist, and Karl Rove was the investigative reporter. Vice President Cheney overruled the advice of several members of the White House staff and insisted on sticking to a plan for releasing information about his hunting accident that resulted in a 20-hour, overnight delay in public confirmation of the startling incident, according to several Republican sources."

John Dickerson writes in Slate: "Cheney's allies (and those are different than Bush allies in this case) argue that Cheney cared more about his hurt friend and his host than he did about informing the Beltway press. Maybe for the first hour or two, but to wait so long only points out what we always have known about the vice president: He doesn't give a damn about the public or press' right to know. . . .

"And at some point Cheney's starchy behavior is also insulting. Shouldn't there be some minimum level of explanation he's willing to offer as the second-highest ranking public official? When you nearly commit homicide as a public official shouldn't the honor of your office compel you to stand up and explain yourself in some fashion, at least say something in a press release and not just whisper it to a Texas rancher?

"If that sense of duty doesn't compel him, Cheney should see the political necessity of saying something fast."

About Deciding to Call the Press

VandeHei and Moreno write in The Washington Post: "In a telephone interview, [Katharine] Armstrong said that she, her mother and her sister, Sara Storey Armstrong Hixon, decided on Sunday morning after breakfast to report the shooting accident to the media. 'It was my family's own volition, and the vice president agreed. We felt -- my family felt and we conferred as a family -- that the information needed to go public. It was our idea,' Armstrong said."

CBS News's Mark Knoller reports: "Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong said no one discussed notifying the public of the accident Saturday because they were so consumed with making sure [Harry] Whittington was OK. She said the family realized in the morning that it would be a story and decided to call the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She said she then discussed the news coverage with Cheney for the first time."

But Nicholas Riccardi and James Gerstenzang write in the Los Angeles Times that Anne Armstrong, co-owner of the ranch, "said Cheney had spoken with her Saturday evening about disclosing the incident to the public. 'We knew word would get out,' she said. He urged her to tell friends and family first, before word leaked out to the media."

Here's what CNN's Suzanne Malveaux said at yesterday's press briefing: "Katharine Armstrong talked to CNN Sunday evening. She said that she thought this was going to become a story, so she was going to go to the local press. She also told CNN that she did not believe the Vice President's office was aware that she was going to go to the local press."

And lest we forget, according to press secretary Scott McClellan, Rove called the ranch shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday night and spoke to one of the Armstrongs about the incident.

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The Press Corps

Marc Sandalow writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The White House struggled Monday in the face of an aggressive press corps to explain why it took nearly a full day to disclose that Vice President Dick Cheney had shot a fellow quail hunter.

"The uproar over a matter as straightforward -- some would say trivial -- as a hunting mishap demonstrated the long-standing tension between the media's presumption that it be kept promptly informed and the Bush administration's insistence on managing the news."