Loose Cannon

Lance Gay writes for Scripps Howard News Service: "The Internet sprouted with offerings of 'Dick Cheney hunts people' T-shirts and comments about calling the vice president 'Deadeye Dick.' There also was a version of the vice-presidential seal featuring a shotgun-wielding Elmer Fudd in hunting gear, with the inscription: 'Be vewy vewy quiet, we're hunting I-wackies.'"

Mark Leibovich writes in The Washington Post about the inside-the-beltway jokesters: "Democratic staffers on the Hill could be heard singing a parody of Aerosmith's 'Janie's Got a Gun,' using the words 'Cheney's got a gun.' Or marveling at how 'Republicans really don't like lawyers, do they?' or circulating a quote from Bush, in a 2000 interview with the Houston Chronicle, in which he hailed Cheney as 'somebody who is going to shoot straight with the American people.' "

Political Cartoons

An amazing outpouring from the nation's political cartoonists.

Here are Tom Toles ; Mike Luckovich ; Ben Sargent ; David Horsey ; Doug Marlette ; Stuart Carlson ; Chan Lowe ; Bob Engelhart ; Kevin Siers ; Richard Crowson ; and much more from Daryl Cagle 's cartoonist index.

Tabloid Humor

The cover of the New York Daily News calls it "Birdgate!"

The New York Post cover depicts Cheney as Elmer Fudd.

Inside, Deborah Orin writes: "The White House took heavy flak yesterday for waiting a vewwy, vewwy long time before revealing that wascally Vice President Dick Cheney had shot a fellow hunter."

Documents in the Case

The Smoking Gun Web site yesterday posted the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report, which blames the shooting on a "hunter's judgment factor," and the Kenedy County Sheriff 's office announcement that it is "fully satisfied that this was no more than an accident."

The vice president's office -- in its only official communique on the issue -- responded with an acknowledgement that Cheney lacked the requisite $7 stamp for hunting upland game birds, but offered no details about the incident.

In this fascinating video, Corpus Christi Caller-Times photographer George Gongora recreates the accident -- by shooting a human-sized target from 90 feet with a 29-gauge shotgun.

The Victim's View

Dave Michaels and Todd J. Gillman write in the Dallas Morning News: "Sally (Whittington) May said her father does not recall a lot of the incident, nor was he involved in how or whether information about the incident was released: 'He didn't know at the time if he was going to the hospital or the mortuary.' "

Opinion Watch

Mike Leggett , the outdoors writer for the Austin American-Statesman, writes: "You shot a guy. At least stay in town until he's out of the hospital.

"You shot a guy. Don't blame the sun or the wind or the rotation of the Earth. And for goodness' sake, don't blame Harry Whittington.

"He's the guy you shot, and unless he pulled the trigger himself, it wasn't his fault. Unless he was invisible, it wasn't his fault. And it wasn't his fault that he didn't 'announce his presence,' either. He was supposedly 30 yards behind you. His only fault was being a human being standing on two legs. . . .

"Stand up. Take responsibility. Be a man. You shot a guy."

Eugene Robinson writes in his Washington Post opinion column that "out-of-control is the way this whole administration operates: Ready, fire, aim. Global war on terrorism, global war on poultry, what's the difference? You see something moving, shoot it."

John Podhoretz writes in National Review's Corner: "This story is a very big deal, despite all the mitigating factors -- the accident involved a friend, his medical team was right there to help, and all that. Something like this has never happened before, and it is a genuinely disturbing thing to think that the vice president of the United States actually shot somebody last weekend, even for fans of his. It's disturbing as well that there was a news blackout that lasted nearly a day about this serious incident. It seems beyond question that the vice president is going to have to go before the cameras, explain what happened, and show genuine remorse for his actions, however inadvertent. It's a difficult challenge for someone as reticent as Dick Cheney. But unless he does so, and makes a good showing of it, he will be damaged goods for the remainder of the Bush presidency."

Washington Monthly blogger Kevin Drum writes: "Now, 48 hours after the shooting, Cheney still hasn't talked to the press or even issued a statement saying he feels terrible about what happened, but he has released a statement saying that after learning he didn't have the right permit for shooting quail he has 'sent a 7 dollar check to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which is the cost of an upland game bird stamp.'

"Can this episode get any more ridiculous? The Veep's office can't rouse itself to say even a single word about what happened, but somehow they have the time to assure us that Cheney is good for the seven bucks he failed to pay for an upland game bird stamp?"

Editorial Watch

Washington Post editorial : "Mr. Cheney did not check his official title at the Armstrongs' front gate. That was no private citizen who pulled the trigger, sending someone to the hospital. That act, though accidental -- and doubtless both agonizing and embarrassing -- was committed by the country's second-highest public official. Neither Mr. Cheney nor the White House gets to pick and choose when to disclose a shooting. Saturday's incident required immediate public disclosure -- a fact so elementary that the failure to act properly is truly disturbing in its implications."

New York Times editorial : "The vice president appears to have behaved like a teenager who thinks that if he keeps quiet about the wreck, no one will notice that the family car is missing its right door. The administration's communications department has proved that its skills at actually communicating are so rusty it can't get a minor police-blotter story straight. And the White House, in trying to cover up the cover-up, has once again demonstrated that it would rather look inept than open."