The Veep on Fox

National Review's Byron York also raises the media factor:

"For all its mistakes, the White House still has one formidable factor on its side, and that is the tendency of its political adversaries -- and some in the press -- to overreach. The behavior of the White House press corps at Monday's briefing disgusted many viewers around the country and briefly turned the story away from the vice president and toward the media. On Monday night, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank appeared on MSNBC in an orange hunting cap and vest, and the next day the Clinton strategist Paul Begala did the same thing on CNN, suggesting that, whatever they might be saying, some of the vice president's critics were simply not serious about the matter.

"And then there are the darker theorists of the left. To take one example, Lawrence O'Donnell, the Hollywood producer, has asked 'Was Cheney drunk?' There is no known evidence to support that notion -- and there is a sheriff's report which specifically says, 'The investigation reveals that there was no alcohol or misconduct involved in the incident.' Yet on Monday O'Donnell wrote, 'Every lawyer I've talked to assumes Cheney was too drunk to talk to the cops after the shooting.'"

"A straightforward word from Cheney could end that kind of talk -- provided that there was indeed no drinking going on -- and also make the administration's adversaries look foolish and opportunistic."

Glenn Reynolds, picking up on my post from yesterday, questions the Fourth Estate:

"It's possible to make fun of the press's self-involvement here, and it's hilarious to hear -- as I did in the car on the way home just now -- Hillary Clinton complaining about this Administration's secretiveness, as if we'd forgotten the health care task force, the Rose Law Firm billing records, etc. But nonetheless, Cheney screwed up bigtime...

"It's the classic political mistake of not responding quickly. That said, it's also a classic example of the press's instinct for the capillary. This is getting Natalee Holloway level coverage, when there's lots of more important stuff going on."

The Washington Times, by the way, fronted the story for the first time yesterday. The headline: "Shooting By Cheney Was Typical Accident."

Radio host Hugh Hewitt opens rhetorical fire on the denizens of the media:

"The MSM is unhinged, a victim of its Bush hatred, which includes of course hatred of Cheney. The idea that failure to tell the White House press corps of a hunting accident for 14 hours is in any way similar to leaving a woman to die in a submerged car while fleeing the scene or the cover-up of Watergate is just nuts.

"And the American people know it."

The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which ran 4,726 editorials on Whitewater, mocks the Cheney story: