Well, well well.  The Veep is the "the shooter" according to Chris Mathews.  Others on the left say he's "the trigger man".  Even former Senate Majority leader Trent Lott said he called Cheney the "shooter in chief" during a Congressional meeting on Valentine's day.   Sadly, many of the folks watching events unfold will hear a recurring message:  The hunting accident was a metaphor for Cheney's oversight of WMD misinformation and the "oil coverup". You know, Cheney the rabid neo-con, hot on the heels of anyone who so much as mentions Middle East interests and their obligate deviations from America's interests.  Like a bird dog chasing the quarry and forgetting there are cars on the road, Cheney loses the forest for the trees, the friend for the bird.  Then "lies" are told and a Cindy Sheehan star is born.  In their vicious indictment of the admittedly egregiously errant hunter, some folks have forgotten delays and amnesia shared by other pols from the past.

The Peacock's David Gregory, in his Geraldo "I am the story" mode, chastised Scott McClellan the other day, whining incessantly about the alleged coverup and it's significance.  In his defense,  the growth of the talk/news audience and the dizzying pace of a 24/7 news cycle requires some creative storymaking these days.  But why must the self described "Fourth Branch" look the other way when reminded about past chronological and amnestic fopaws of their political champions.

How about Hillary?  Yes, that would be the same  Hillary who angrily called the administration's "tendency ...to withold information...to refuse to be forthcoming about information that is of significance and relevance to the jobs that all of you do, and the interests of the American People....a pattern that should be troubling...very disturbing" over the whole trumped up spectacle.  But did the mainstream media blow a gasket when the then first lady was behind the 30-plus hour delay in the release of Vince Foster's suicide note?  Or the 'lost' Rose Law Firm Records?  I can't find similar media outrage in my review.

And even Senator Kennedy was making light of Mr. Cheney's error when he joked, in response to a testimony referring to a 'gut punch', "that probably isn't appropriate on a day like this".  Whoa, can you believe that the same guy who left the scene of the  horrific drowning 40 years ago of Mary Jo Kopechne, due to his stuporous antics behind the wheel.  Then he returned to the party and only the next morning called the police, after the wreck had been discovered.  Hunting accident vs. manslaughter, concern for the injured vs. cowardly abandonment of the dying.  Why, Mssrs. Mathews and Gregory, have you been so unwilling to compare and contrast.  Do we need a reality check, here?

Then there's the case of Senator Harry Reid.  He too has tried to pitchfork Mr. Cheney while making political hay.  Yet a curious story from his own recent past confirms the thin rhetorical ice he's testing:  The AP reported on Friday, August 19, 2005 that Reid had suffered a TIA (that's transient ischemic attack, or mini-stroke) on Tuesday.  My calculator says that's about 72 hours before it was reported.  Arguably, the event itself warranted reporting to his constituency and colleagues, lest duties go undone or deadlines pass unmet.  Certainly the event reflected on his job, whereas Cheneys mishap didn't.  Which makes the delay (dare I say "coverup"?) meaningful.  To make matters worse, his press secretary justified the delay on accuracy: " We wanted to maike sure we knew what we were announcing.  You need conclusive information."   An almost identical alibi was invoked by Dick Cheney in the Brit Hume interview.  While neither delay was politically astute or pragmatic, the Vice President's failure to instantly report a matter totally devoid of public consequence (other than our insatiable voyeurism) pales in comparison to Reid's poor judgement. 

So it is that this non story has painted the mainstream media monster and its symbiotic politician leeches look the real fools here.  As a hunter I can say that Cheney was negligent in wounding a comrade at such close range to cause such depth of penetration with a 28 gauge quail load.  As a commentator, I'm superficially amazed and amused at the circus that followed.  As a citizen, I'm troubled; not like Hillary at the 'coveyup', but at the opportunistic and mean spirited aftermath it triggered.