QUAILGATE

UPDATE: Read Mark Finkelstein's account of Good Morning America's spin.

Charlie Gibson obviously found the story so enticing, he didn't need any viagra to stay aroused through this one.
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The Left-wing blogosphere is drooling over the hunting accident involving Dick Cheney and 78-year-old lawyer Harry Whittington.

So are the Old Lib Media, like the Washington Post.


(J. Scott Applewhite - AP)

Look at this photo that the Post has on its website to accompany the story.

What a slimy move! That sneering visage is way over the top, even when you consider that it's coming from an ultra-lib paper like the Post.

Do you believe that picture? The photos they publish of Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are more flattering.

The Vice President of the United States deserves to be treated with far more respect than that.

Anyway, the Washington Post's report shares some similarities with the type of commentary about the story found on loony Leftist blogs.

The Post notes:Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's owner, saw what happened Saturday and told reporters yesterday that Cheney was using a 28-gauge shotgun, which shoots fewer pellets and has a smaller shot pattern than a 12-gauge shotgun, making it harder to hit the target. Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit in the cheek, neck and chest, she said.

According to Armstrong's account, she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail. Whittington shot a bird and as he went to retrieve it, Cheney and the third hunter discovered a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said, according to the Associated Press.

It was Armstrong's decision to alert the news media. Cheney's office made no public announcement, deciding to defer to Armstrong because the incident had taken place on her property. Armstrong called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, and when a reporter from the paper called the White House, the vice president's office confirmed the account.

Cheney's office referred other reporters to Armstrong for a witness account, but after speaking to some members of the media yesterday afternoon, Armstrong stopped returning phone calls.

Cheney didn't alert the media. He sat on the story for twenty-four hours!

IT'S QUAILGATE!!!


First, hunting accidents are nothing to make light of. Nevertheless, the Left-wing blogs are loving this one.

Thankfully, Mr. Whittington is doing well and could be released from the hospital as early as tomorrow. I think the Lefties finding humor in this situation are real sickos.

Second, how can the lib blogs and news outlets possibly complain about Cheney sitting on this story?

It immediately brings to mind another elected official involved in an accident -- the oh so honorable Ted Kennedy.

Teddy didn't report the drowning DEATH of Mary Jo Kopechne for hours. He left the scene of the accident. He left that young woman's body in his car submerged in Poucha Pond.


What Teddy did in July of 1969 can't be considered "sitting" on a story. What he did was criminal.

Teddy didn't call for help. Teddy did not even report the accident to authorities. Authorities finally located him after the car and Mary Jo's body were discovered the following morning.

Excerpts from Teddy's televised damage control mission:



My fellow citizens:

I have requested this opportunity to talk to the people of Massachusetts about the tragedy which happened last Friday evening. This morning I entered a plea of guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. Prior to my appearance in court it would have been improper for me to comment on these matters. But tonight I am free to tell you what happened and to say what it means to me.

... made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo be diving into strong and murky current, but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm. My conduct and conversations during the next several hours, to the extent that I can remember them, make no sense to me at all.

Although my doctors informed me that I suffered a cerebral concussion, as well as shock, I do not seek to escape responsibility for my actions by placing the blame either in the physical, emotional trauma brought on by the accident, or on anyone else. I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the policy immediately.

Instead of looking directly for a telephone after lying exhausted in the grass for an undetermined time, I walked back to the cottage where the party was being held and requested the help of two friends, my cousin, Joseph Gargan and Phil Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with me -- this was sometime after midnight -- in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives also proved futile.

...Instructing Gargan and Markham not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night, I had them take me to the ferry crossing. The ferry having shut down for the night, I suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, and returned to my hotel about 2 A.M. and collapsed in my room.

I remember going out at one point and saying something to the room clerk.

In the morning, with my mind somewhat more lucid, I made an effort to call a family legal advisor, Burke Marshall, from a public telephone on the Chappaquiddick side of the ferry and belatedly reported the accident to the Martha's Vineyard police.

Now, any liberal daring to criticize the Vice President for respecting Mr. Whittington's privacy by not putting out a press release about the incident immediately should keep the story of the accident in proper perspective.

The Vice President didn't leave the scene. Mr. Whittington received medical care immediately and was then taken to the hospital, not an undisclosed location. The Vice President visited him there on Saturday. Cheney was hardly hiding his involvement.

THERE WAS NO COVER-UP BECAUSE THERE WAS NOTHING TO COVER UP.
That was not the case in the Chappaquiddick situation.Moreover, Cheney's office confirmed the accident.

Lefties having fun at Mr. Whittington's expense are pretty sleazy.

Of course, they aren't nearly as sleazy as U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy -- the man who left the scene of a fatal accident, failed to report it, and then made up one of the lamest cover-up stories I've ever heard.

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Speaking of sleazy, this press release from James and Sarah Brady is absolutely awful. They should retract it.

Really disgusting.


To: National Desk

Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 202-289-5792

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney's reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.

"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," said Jim Brady. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot."

"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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/© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/