Vice President Dick Cheney did himself a lot of good by taking responsibility for Saturday's hunting accident. "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend," Cheney told Brit Hume on Wednesday. "It was not Harry's fault," the vice president explained. "You cannot blame anybody else." You can't get much clearer than that. No passing the buck. No "but" in the sentence. No excuses. The public statement is late, but in this case it's "better late than never" rather than "too little, too late."

Multiple Cheney defenders, speaking from the same sheet of music, had inferred that Cheney's victim, and not Cheney himself, was at fault for the accident. That's pretty gross. It's literally adding insult to injury. Since none of these talking heads witnessed the event, and the vice president remained mum, it's a mystery where they got their information. Certainly not from Harry Whittington, who lies in a hospital bed. (Perhaps they got it from some verbal contortionist who gets paid to spread fictions--talking points--for the Republicans, but would gladly do so for the Democrats if they paid him more.)

All of this is not to say that the shooter always bears full responsibility in such accidents. Given that the Marine Corps is my only frame of reference, I draw an example from my experiences in it. About ten years ago at Twenty-Nine Palms, California, I was part of a small-arms live-fire exercise on a night range. The maneuvers consisted of several fire teams closing in on an objective while engaging various targets. As the fire team I was a part of did the ususal "I'm up/They see me/I'm down" movements toward the objective, the fire-team leader decided to call for an enveloping maneuver. Basically, think of a vertical line becoming an "L" by way of one fire team moving like a door on a hinge to form the "L". This was a bad idea. It was very dark and the movement hadn't been properly rehearsed. Since I was along the hinge of what was basically a swinging-door of Marines, I faced no danger. But I noticed that the guy who called the flanking movement started edging dangerously close to the line of fire of the main body of Marines. I immediately called a cease fire. Others noticed the hazzard and did so too. Had the fire-team leader who called for the enveloping manuever been shot, I would have placed most of the blame on him. It's not a good idea to get within the lateral limits of a squad assault weapon.

But if you accidentally shoot someone, it's not your place to blame the victim. If you pull the trigger, you should know what it is that you are shooting at. Awareness of surroundings is especially true when firing a shot-gun, as its contents obviously spray out over a wider area than a rifle. Like so much of what Dick Cheney does, this bizarre incident occured outside the public's eye. Absent a Zapruder film, we may never know exactly what happened. We do know, and this is important, that it was an accident.

National Reveiw really called this one.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/06_02_12_corner-archive.asp#090018

"Cheney himself should make a public appearance on the matter, and the sooner the better. He should get himself with a respected national anchor — perhaps Brit Hume of Fox News — as soon as this evening to express his regret and explain in his own words what happened. He should stop relying on press aides who were not present at the accident to tell his side of the story. Not talking only feeds speculation, and aids the cause of those who want to lampoon and smear him. Let's hear from the vice president."

No matter what a gaggle of whiney journalists say, Cheney handled this well, insulating himself until this delicate matter played out. And when it was time, as is his choice, he decided to make a statement about the matter on his own terms.

The power and the authority afforded to the Vice President of the United States needs to taken into consideration here and respected.

The press and network news have developed into groups that think they ARE the news and that they should control it. They always talk about 'the right of the American people to know' but it's clear that, for them, it’s really more about self gratification and selling their product than it is about reporting what happened in an unbiased manner.

ASDF: I disagree with your initial point about us respecting the vice president's power and authority. He has neither, and if he did I wouldn't respect his "power and authority."

The other point you make, about the press, is a good one. It used to be the nightmare of any journalist to become the story. David Gregory clearly gets bored with covering stories and, every so often, wants to become the story. His caustic exchange with Scott McClellan demonstrates this. Ditto, in a collective sense, with CNN's response to Fox News landing the Cheney interview. Cheney's reaction was the real story, but CNN wants to turn it into a media story about Fox v. CNN. I don't find these folks as interesting as they find themselves.

I’m not a Cheney fan by any means. But, even though many of us indirectly elected him as we had little choice as he was part of the package, I’m not sure that it’s true that he has little power or authority.

We’ll never quite know for sure how much he really does control but I think it’s safe to say that he is one of the closest to the President and more than likely has some say in important decisions made by the President.

Because of the sensitive nature of his office he can not be expected to act in the same manner or to be subject to the same constraints that the average citizen is. Not saying he is above the law as nobody is (or at least nobody should be), but by protecting his office the Presidents office is also protected.

ASDF and Dan: There is an interesting ambiguity in your debate about whether the VP is afforded any "power and authority" and whether such should be respected.

Although he is afforded some by the president and other exec dept people, he certainly isn't afforded any by the constitution or under law. So it seems that, regardless of whatever power and authority he is "afforded", it shouldn't be respected.

I guess that is what I was getting at: the vice president has very little power delegated to him by law. Perhaps what ASDF was getting at is that this vice president is very powerful and has assumed quite a bit of authority as far as vice presidents go. If that is the power and authority ASDF is getting at, then I mostly agree: Dick Cheney, but not the office of vice president, has a remarkable amount of power. But since that power is not legally delegated, I don't respect it. Even if it were, I doubt I would respect it anyhow.

I only respect Lemiwinks

What did Dick Chaney do to earn the disrespect reflected here? I consider him one of the best, toughest and most knowledgeable leaders who clearly understands what is needed to be part of leadership of the free world, especially after 9-11.

I agree that the Vice Presidency is not by law a power position. But, it could be successfully argued that Cheney has used it well and has been one of our more effective and powerful VP's. I think this is what we’re all saying.

And although it is typically little more than an honorary office as the VP is mostly invisible, some importance has to be assigned considering that he is next in line to the most powerful position on the planet and, to a lesser extent, can make or break a vote in the Senate. In this administration, because of the man who occupies it, the office has become much more visible.

My point would be that he is not the man on the street and he and his office should not be subject to scrutiny in the same way someone of lesser importance might be. This isn’t to say that the man or the office is above the law or out of bounds to criticism, but I think there should be more consideration and respect given by an out of control press and other so called pundits who would take a whack at him.

He and his handlers did what needed to be done to get the story right and protect the VP in their own time. And, although some us citizens, the press and his peers may not agree with how it was handled, what was done was done to handle a tricky and delicate situation and I think handled pretty well.

Harry Whittington just left the hospital. He looked pretty darn good for a 78 year old who's full of buckshot.

Weird though. As he was walking to his car, Cheney tried to run him down.

Tough old dude.

asdf...was that Dick or just his driver under orders?

Sometimes a comment thread is best left blank. This should have been one of those times.

And why would that be Michael? Isn't this topic 'post' worthy? Granted, it was approached on a few different levels but all were interesting and at least slightly entertaining. Don't get your comments here.

Whether Cheney has or doesn't have some "power" that should or should not be "respected" has nothing to do with the incident. The 411 different conspiracy theories have nothing to do with the incident. Lame attempts at humor in the face of a serious hunting accident have nothing to do with this incident.

Cheney, while on a recreational hunting trip, accidentally shot one of his fellow hunters, and a good friend to boot. Cheney, like you or I, is concerned for the health and well-being of his friend, and feels terrible about the accident. He took full responsibility for it even though his victim claimed it was part his fault and in any case accidents happen.

Cheney handled it correctly. The White House handled it correctly. Everybody else did not. That's what I mean.