Not Exactly Clearing Things Up

"Cheney said yesterday that [Katharine] Armstrong was the best person to deal with the press because 'she'd seen the whole thing.' But how dependable is a witness who, according to reports, was sitting in a vehicle 100 yards away at the time? The distance may be important: Armstrong has also said that when she saw Cheney's security people running toward the scene, she first thought that Cheney had suffered 'a heart problem,' not that someone had been shot. If she was close enough to witness the incident, wouldn't she have known that Whittington was the person in distress?"

Ralph Blumenthal tries valiantly in the New York Times to put together a coherent timeline based on public statements by Armstrong, Cheney and Willeford. But it just shows how many gaps and contradictions there are in the story.

Blumenthal writes: "They had taken turns shooting, and now Ms. Armstrong was in the Jeep with her sister. About 100 yards away, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Whittington and Ms. Willeford were walking in a line in a low spot on gently sloping ground.

"After Mr. Whittington bagged his birds he dropped out of sight along with one of Ms. Armstrong's bird dogs, Gertie, Ms. Willeford recalled.

"Then, suddenly, he was in a dip about 30 yards away against the sun just as Mr. Cheney fired a blast from his Italian-made 28-gauge Perazzi shotgun."

Blumenthal also writes: "Between 8 and 9 p.m., Ms. Armstrong recalled, Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff, called her 'to check on Harry,' who she said was 'an old friend of Karl's.' She said there was no discussion of what President Bush had been told of the shooting and whether he knew that Mr. Cheney had fired the shots."

But wait: That conflicts with the official White House narrative, which is that the White House only knew an accident had taken place -- and didn't know Cheney was actually the shooter -- until Rove spoke to Armstrong.

Alan Freeman writes in Toronto's Globe and Mail: "Despite Mr. Cheney's emphasis on the need for accuracy, Mrs. Armstrong's version of events was at odds with Mr. Cheney's. . . .

"Mrs. Armstrong, who witnessed the incident from a car, left the impression that the mishap was relatively minor, saying Mr. Whittington was 'peppered' with birdshot. She said on Sunday that the birdshot 'knocked him silly, but he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open.'

"By contrast, Mr. Cheney described Mr. Whittington as laying on the ground, bleeding. He did not respond when spoken to, though he was conscious and breathing."

Tim Grieve writes in Salon: "Although Armstrong told a different story later, she initially told CNN that 'she did not believe the Vice President's Office was aware that she was going to go to the local press.' Cheney said that he talked with Armstrong about her plan to break the news to a local reporter and 'thought it made good sense.' "

David E. Sanger and Anne E. Kornblut write in the New York Times: "Until Mr. Cheney acknowledged having had a beer at lunch, members of the hunting party had been adamant that no alcohol was involved. Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch, had said in interviews that Dr Pepper was served at lunch and that no one was drinking. In interviews with The Times and other papers, Ms. Armstrong heavily implied that no alcohol was served at all.