The Veep on Fox

"As for the press strategy: completely unconvincing. He waited, he argued, for accuracy's sake. First reports are always wrong, he claimed. So what? He knew that he'd shot someone accidentally; that person was seriously wounded and taken to hospital; and that's all he needed to report to the national media. As soon as the family had been informed, the press should have been called. It's a no-brainer."

Kos headline: "Cheney Drank Before Shooting His Pal."

Arianna: "Watching Dead-eye Dick Cheney break his silence on Fox, I kept thinking: This is what it looks like when a man who is used to getting away with covering up the truth finally has to explain himself.

"He did a lousy job -- especially on the key question of why it took so long to let the public know . . .

"None of [the] explanations explains the 18 hour delay or would have precluded the release of a simple announcement. Even Brit Hume was having a hard time buying into the vice president's justifications."

She's using the word "coverup." (Didn't he just accept responsibility for the shooting?)

Captain Ed: "I think Cheney did an admirable job in the interview. Cheney took responsibility for the shooting itself. He went over the steps taken at the hospital to care for Whittington and some of the efforts taken to notify his family. His explanation sounds quite reasonable, and his actions appear to be understandable under the circumstances. . . .

"Cheney made a poor decision about the method of publishing the news, but he didn't intend on hiding it from anyone. Cheney just couldn't bring himself to admit that, however."

As for the larger debate, when Ryan Lizza is wondering in the New Republic whether the esteemed denizens of the Fourth Estate are going to far, that's a leading indicator, don't you think?

"It's true there isn't a better metaphor for this administration than Cheney shooting the wrong target and then trying to spin his way out of the awful mistake.

"But still, I'm having trouble getting worked up. Some of the criticism of the White House is a tad disingenuous. Reporters usually complain that the Bushies control all information. Now they are complaining that news of the event was first relayed by eyewitness Katharine Armstrong rather than the veep's official spin team. Some of my good friends are White House reporters, but some of their whining seems driven as much by the Bush press corps' famous sense of entitlement--we must be the first to know or the country will be kept in the dark!--as it is by any high-mindedness about the public being properly informed. And weirdly, many of the pundits and reporters I've seen on the tube are frothing about the White House's crappy public relations job, as if it's our role to make sure the administration's ministry of propaganda is functioning properly.

"Isn't the story a big deal without all the self-righteous navel-gazing about how the White House handled it?"