Nurses Launch National "CheneyCare" Campaign - New Print, Online Ads Jumpstart Petition Drive for Guaranteed Health Care

Washington, DC – The California Nurses Association (CNA)/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) launched a national campaign today in favor of what the group has dubbed “CheneyCare” – guaranteed, publicly-funded health care for all Americans. ....

Forget Impeachment, Put Bush and Cheney in a Straightjacket

By Rosa Brooks, Los Angeles Times
Posted on October 29, 2007, Printed on October 29, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/66336/

Forget impeachment.

Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.

Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it's a great time to start another war.

That would be with Iran, and you'd have to be deaf not to hear the war drums. Last week, Bush remarked that "if you're interested in avoiding World War III ... you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." On Sunday, Cheney warned of "the Iranian regime's efforts to destabilize the Middle East and to gain hegemonic power ... [we] cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions." On Tuesday, Bush insisted on the need "to defend Europe against the emerging Iranian threat."

Huh? Iran is now a major threat to Europe? The Iranians are going to launch a nuclear missile (that they don't yet possess) against Europe (for reasons unknown because, as far as we know, they're not mad at anyone in Europe)? This is lunacy in action.

Writing in Newsweek on Oct. 20, Fareed Zakaria, a solid centrist and former editor of Foreign Affairs, put it best. Citing Bush's invocation of "the specter of World War III if Iran gained even the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon," Zakaria concluded that "the American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to reality. ... Iran has an economy the size of Finland's. ... It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are ... allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?"

Planet Cheney.

Zakaria may be misinterpreting the president's remark about World War III though. He saw it as a dangerously loopy Bush prediction about the future behavior of a nuclear Iran -- the idea being, presumably, that possessing "the knowledge" to make a nuclear weapon would so empower Iran's repressive leaders that they'll giddily rush out and start World War III.

But you could read Bush's remark as a madman's threat rather than a madman's prediction -- as a warning to recalcitrant states, from Germany to Russia, that don't seem to share his crazed obsession with Iran. The message: Fall into line with administration policy toward Iran or you can count on the U.S.A. to try to start World War III on its own. And when it comes to sparking global conflagration, a U.S. attack on Iran might be just the thing. Yee haw!

You'd better believe these guys would do it too. Why not? They have nothing to lose -- they're out of office in 15 months anyway. Après Bush-Cheney, le déluge! (Have fun, Hillary.)

But all this creates a conundrum. What's a constitutional democracy to do when the president and vice president lose their marbles?

The U.S. is full of ordinary people with serious forms of mental illness -- delusional people with violent fantasies who think they're the president, or who think they get instructions from the CIA through their dental fillings.

The problem with Bush is that he is the president -- and he gives instructions to the CIA and military, without having to go through his dental fillings.

Impeachment's not the solution to psychosis, no matter how flagrant. But despite their impressive foresight in other areas, the framers unaccountably neglected to include an involuntary civil commitment procedure in the Constitution.

Still, don't lose hope. By enlisting the aid of mental health professionals and the court system, Congress can act to remedy that constitutional oversight. The goal: Get Bush and Cheney committed to an appropriate inpatient facility, where they can get the treatment they so desperately need. In Washington, the appropriate statutory law is already in place: If a "court or jury finds that [a] person is mentally ill and ... is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization."

I'll even serve on the jury. When it comes to averting World War III, it's really the least I can do.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/66336/

Uh oh...
Yeah, sure this is a "routine" thing. But, this is just too scary at this point in time.

Democrats plan to cut Cheney out of executive funding bill
06/23/2007 @ 1:52 pm
Filed by Josh Catone

Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.

The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives.

"The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch," said Emanuel in a statement released to RAW STORY. "However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments."

At a press briefing yesterday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said that Cheney's assertion that he operates outside of the executive branch of government was "an interesting constitutional question that people can debate" and a "non-issue."

On Thursday, Emanuel suggested that if Cheney feels his office is not part of the executive branch "he should return the salary the American taxpayers have been paying him since January 2001, and move out of the home for which they are footing the bill."

Emanuel also released the following graphic satirizing the situation:

Is Dick Cheney Trying to Create His Own 4th Branch of Government?
By Guest Blogger
Posted on June 22, 2007, Printed on June 22, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/guest/54992/

This post, written by Naomi Seligman, originally appeared on CREW

The Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, is trying to create a new legal status for himself. This latest development raises serious new questions about Cheney -- and who, if anyone, has authority over his actions. In Cheney's mind, it seems no one does.

CREW just issued this news release asking these new questions that need to be answered about Dick Cheney:

In light of new revelations that Vice President Cheney is claiming that his office is not subject to an executive order governing the handling of classified information because as president of the Senate he has both legislative and executive duties, CREW asks if Vice President Cheney is attempting to create a fourth branch of the government?

Under his argument, if Mr. Cheney is not subject to executive branch security requirements, surely he must be subject to Senate rules.

To safeguard sensitive information, in 1987 the Senate created the Office of Senate Security, which is part of the Secretary of the Senate. The Security Office's standards, procedures and requirements are set out in the Senate Security Manual, which is binding on all employees of the Senate.

So, if Mr. Cheney is a member of the Senate, he must adhere to the following:

    * a requirement that any of his staff needing access to classified information undergo a security clearance and complete written non-disclosure agreements;

    * physical security requirements, that the Security Office is empowered to implement, including any necessary inspections; and

    * investigations of suspected security violations by employees, such as the security violation committed by Scooter Libby when he unlawfully disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, then a covert CIA operative.

In addition, Mr. Cheney and his staff would be subject to investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, which has the responsibility to investigate allegations of improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate, including violations of law and the rules and regulations of the Senate.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Mr. Cheney's arguments raise new questions:

Since there is no fourth branch of government to which Mr. Cheney could belong, by claiming the Office of the Vice President is within the legislative branch does Mr. Cheney agree that he is subject to Senate security procedures?

Mr. Cheney's office refused to describe its 2003 classification activities to the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), but is he now willing to describe them to the Senate Security Office?

If Mr. Cheney does not believe that NARA's Information Security Oversight Office can conduct on-sight inspection of Mr. Cheney's office to see how sensitive material is handled, does he agree that the Senate Security Office can conduct such an inspection?

We'd really like some answers.

Naomi Seligman Steiner serves as CREW's Deputy Director and Communications Director.
© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/guest/54992/

  Go to Original

    Cheney Power Grab: Says White House Rules Don't Apply to Him
    By Justin Rood
    ABC News

    Thursday 21 June 2007

    Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies, according to a new letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to Cheney.

    Bill Leonard, head of the government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), told Waxman's staff that Cheney's office has refused to provide his staff with details regarding classified documents or submit to a routine inspection as required by presidential order, according to Waxman.

    In pointed letters released today by Waxman, ISOO's Leonard twice questioned Cheney's office on its assertion it was exempt from the rules. He received no reply, but the vice president later tried to get rid of Leonard's office entirely, according to Waxman.

    Leonard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    In a statement e-mailed to the Blotter on ABCNews.com, Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn said, "We are confident that we are conducting the office properly under the law."

    As director of the tiny, 25-person Information Security Oversight Office, Leonard is responsible for keeping track of the nation's secrets and making sure they are properly protected.

    For the first two years of the George W. Bush administration, Cheney's office complied with a presidential order that requires officials to report statistics on the number of documents it classifies and declassifies.

    Since 2003, however, Cheney's office has refused to submit the data to ISOO. And when ISOO inspectors tried in 2004 to schedule a routine inspection of the vice president's offices, they were rebuffed, Waxman's letter claims.

    Other White House offices, including the National Security Council, did not object to similar inspections, according to Waxman.

    "Serious questions can be raised about both the legality and advisability of exempting your office from the rules that apply to all other executive branch officials," Waxman said in his letter to the vice president, and asked him to explain why he felt the rules didn't apply to him and his staff and how he was protecting classified information in his office.

    Former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was recently convicted on several counts of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the leak of the identity of former covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Waxman noted, and in 2006, former Cheney aide Leandro Aragoncillo pleaded guilty to sharing classified U.S. documents with foreign nationals. Aragoncillo also worked under former Democratic Vice President Al Gore, who complied with ISOO's requests.

 

---

    Go to Original

    Vice President Exempts His Office From the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information
    US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

    Thursday 21 June 2007

    The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."

    As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

    In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions.... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

    A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

Just What We Need

by mcjoan

Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 05:29:58 PM PDT

And Nancy Pelosi Pulls the Warrants From Under Her Skirt ...

Trials are boring, which is why bloggers are so excited about the Scooter Libby Festival of Lights, but we’re following just enough of this to maybe figure out the following:

• Dick Cheney destroyed evidence.
• Dick Cheney made up crazy lies.
• Dick Cheney leaked the CIA agent’s name to Libby and maybe everybody else.
• Dick Cheney bemoaned having to lose his henchman to protect Karl Rove, who maybe really blew the spy’s cover.
• Dick Cheney demanded fake WMD “intelligence” so he could put it in Bush’s 2003 SOTU.
• Actual conservative pundits on the MSNBC are openly discussing Dick Cheney’s resignation.

Here is the Healing Scenario we foresee: The entire State of the Union Address is a setup, to get Cheney surrounded with CSPAN cameras on all the exits. Pelosi’s got the arrest warrant tucked in her garter and a taser gun in her left hand, covered by one of those shawls she likes to wear. And then, just as she simultaneously draws the taser and the warrant while the Capitol police and the Joint Chiefs approach from all sides, Cheney give the stunned Harry Lime “oh shit, they got me” look and the credits roll ….

MSNBC Transcription: Cheney accused by Prosecutors in Libby Trial [DailyKos]

RANGEL BOOTS VEEP

By GEOFF EARLE and IAN BISHOP Post Correspondents

January 4, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Rep. Charles Rangel has evicted Vice President Dick Cheney from his office in the Capitol, and the Harlem heavyweight is moving into the prime digs today, The Post has learned.

Gilded letters were freshly painted atop the office door yesterday proclaiming "Ways and Means Committee" - confirming that the office now belongs to Rangel, the House panel's new chairman.

Sources said Cheney's and his staff's belongings were removed over the holidays.

The new digs give Rangel some of the choicest and most politically central real estate in all of Washington - as well as a measure of sweet revenge.

Rangel moved at lightning speed to boot the man he once told The Post is a "son of a bitch."

Even before Rangel officially took charge as the new chairman - which will happen at noon today - Capitol workers expunged the last traces of Cheney and brought in Rangel's plush furniture.

The ornate room is just yards off the House floor and the Democratic cloakroom where power brokers meet, and has a spectacular view of the Capitol's East Front.

Rangel was giddy at the prospect of giving Cheney the boot the day after Democrats delivered Republicans a crushing defeat on Election Day.

"Mr. Cheney enjoys an office on the second floor of the House of Representatives that historically has been designated for the Ways and Means Committee chairman," Rangel said after the election.

Republicans gave the historic room to Cheney after he captured the vice presidency, but got him to sign a letter saying the gift wasn't permanent.

"I'm trying to find some way to be gentle as I restore the dignity of that office," Rangel chuckled at the time. "You gotta go, you gotta go."

Rangel was so eager to bounce Cheney from the office, he phoned new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) less than 12 hours after the polls closed to get her approval.

Cheney's office took the high road yesterday. Spokeswoman Mary McGinn told The Post, "It was always our understanding that that office was on loan."

Man, being VP must be real tiring!

Cheney attacks on Russia "incomprehensible": Kremlin

Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer
By DOUG THOMPSON
Feb 22, 2006, 07:35

A written report from Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago says Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions, the report said.

According to those who have read the report and talked with others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up.

We talked with a number of administration officials who are privy to inside information on the Vice President's shooting "accident" and all admit Secret Service agents and others saw Cheney consume far more than the "one beer' he claimed he drank at lunch earlier that day.

"This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it."

Cheney has a long history of alcohol abuse, including two convictions of driving under the influence when he was younger. Doctors tell me that someone like Cheney, who is taking blood thinners because of his history of heart attacks, could get legally drunk now after consuming just one drink.

If Cheney was legally drunk at the time of the shooting, he could be guilty of a felony under Texas law and the shooting, ruled an accident by a compliant Kenedy County Sheriff, would be a prosecutable offense.

But we will never know for sure because the owners of the Armstrong Ranch, where the shooting occurred, barred the sheriff's department from the property on the day of the shooting and Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III agreed to wait until the next day to send deputies in to talk to those involved.

Sheriff's Captain Charles Kirk says he went to the Armstrong Ranch immediately after the shooting was reported on Saturday, February 11 but both he and a game warden were not allowed on the 50,000-acre property.  He called Salinas who told him to forget about it and return to the station.

"I told him don't worry about it. I'll make a call," Salinas said. The sheriff claims he called another deputy who moonlights at the Armstrong ranch, said he was told it was "just an accident" and made the decision to wait until Sunday to investigate.

"We've known these people for years. They are honest and wouldn't call us, telling us a lie," Salinas said.

Like all elected officials in Kenedy County, Salinas owes his job to the backing and financial support of Katherine Armstrong, owner of the ranch and the county's largest employer.

"The Armstrongs rule Kenedy County like a fiefdom," says a former employee.

Secret Service officials also took possession of all tests on Whittington's blood at the hospitals where he was treated for his wounds. When asked if a blood alcohol test had been performed on Whittington, the doctors who treated him at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi or the hospital in Kingsville refused to answer. One admits privately he was ordered by the Secret Service to "never discuss the case with the press."

It's a sure bet that is a private doctor who treated the victim of Cheney's reckless and drunken actions can't talk to the public then the memo that shows the Vice President was drunk as a skunk will never see the light of day.

Embargoed For Release Until

6:00 P.M. EST

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

INTERVIEW OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

BY BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS

Vice President's Ceremonial Office

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

2:01 P.M. EST

Q Mr. Vice President, how is Mr. Whittington?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, the good news is he's doing very well
today. I talked to him yesterday after they discovered the heart
problem, but it appears now to have been pretty well resolved and the
reporting today is very good.

Q How did you feel when you heard about that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, it's a great relief. But I won't be,
obviously, totally at ease until he's home. He's going to be in the
hospital, apparently, for a few more days, and the problem, obviously,
is that there's always the possibility of complications in somebody who
is 78-79 years old. But he's a great man, he's in great shape, good
friend, and our thoughts and prayers go out to he and his family.

Q How long have you known him?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I first met him in Vale, Colorado, when I
worked for Gerry Ford about 30 years ago, and it was the first time I'd
ever hunted with him.

Q Would you describe him as a close friend, friendly
acquaintance, what --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, an acquaintance.

Q Tell me what happened?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, basically, we were hunting quail late in
the day --

Q Describe the setting.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's in south Texas, wide-open spaces, a lot
of brush cover, fairly shallow. But it's wild quail. It's some of the
best quail hunting anyplace in the country. I've gone there, to the
Armstrong ranch, for years. The Armstrongs have been friends for over
30 years. And a group of us had hunted all day on Saturday --

Q How many?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, probably 10 people. We weren't all
together, but about 10 guests at the ranch. There were three of us who
had gotten out of the vehicle and walked up on a covey of quail that had
been pointed by the dogs. Covey is flushed, we've shot, and each of us
got a bird. Harry couldn't find his, it had gone down in some deep
cover, and so he went off to look for it. The other hunter and I then
turned and walked about a hundred yards in another direction --

Q Away from him?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Away from him -- where another covey had been
spotted by an outrider. I was on the far right --

Q There was just two of you then?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Just two of us at that point. The guide or
outrider between us, and of course, there's this entourage behind us,
all the cars and so forth that follow me around when I'm out there --
but bird flushed and went to my right, off to the west. I turned and
shot at the bird, and at that second, saw Harry standing there. Didn't
know he was there --

Q You had pulled the trigger and you saw him?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I saw him fall, basically. It had
happened so fast.

Q What was he wearing?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He was dressed in orange, he was dressed
properly, but he was also -- there was a little bit of a gully there, so
he was down a little ways before land level, although I could see the
upper part of his body when -- I didn't see it at the time I shot, until
after I'd fired. And the sun was directly behind him -- that affected
the vision, too, I'm sure.

But the image of him falling is something I'll never be able to get
out of my mind. I fired, and there's Harry falling. And it was, I'd
have to say, one of the worst days of my life, at that moment.

Q Then what?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we went over to him, obviously, right
away --

Q How far away from you was he?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm guessing about 30 yards, which was a good
thing. If he'd been closer, obviously, the damage from the shot would
have been greater.

Q Now, is it clear that -- he had caught part of the shot, is
that right?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- part of the shot. He was struck in the
right side of his face, his neck and his upper torso on the right side
of his body.

Q And you -- and I take it, you missed the bird.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I have no idea. I mean, you focused on the
bird, but as soon as I fired and saw Harry there, everything else went
out of my mind. I don't know whether the bird went down, or didn't.

Q So did you run over to him or --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ran over to him and --

Q And what did you see? He's lying there --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He was laying there on his back, obviously
bleeding. You could see where the shot had struck him. And one of the
fortunate things was that I've always got a medical team, in effect,
covering me wherever I go. I had a physician's assistant with me that
day. Within a minute or two he was on the scene administering
first-aid. And --

Q And Mr. Whittington was conscious, unconscious, what?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He was conscious --

Q What did you say?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I said, "Harry, I had no idea you were
there." And --

Q What did he say?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He didn't respond. He was -- he was
breathing, conscious at that point, but he didn't -- he was, I'm sure,
stunned, obviously, still trying to figure out what had happened to him.
The doc was fantastic --

Q What did you think when you saw the injuries? How serious did
they appear to you to be?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I had no idea how serious it was going to be.
I mean, it could have been extraordinarily serious. You just don't know
at that moment. You know he's been struck, that there's a lot of shot
that had hit him. But you don't know -- you think about his eyes.
Fortunately, he was wearing hunting glasses, and that protected his
eyes. You -- you just don't know. And the key thing, as I say,
initially, was that the physician's assistant was right there. We also
had an ambulance at the ranch, because one always follows me around
wherever I go. And they were able to get the ambulance there, and
within about 30 minutes we had him on his way to the hospital.

Q And what did you do then? Did you get up and did you go with
him, or did you go to the hospital?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I had -- I told my physician's assistant
to go with him, but the ambulance is crowded and they didn't need
another body in there. And so we loaded up and went back to ranch
headquarters, basically. By then, it's about 7:00 p.m. at night. And
Harry --

Q Did you have a sense then of how he was doing?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we're getting reports, but they were
confusing. Early reports are always wrong. The initial reports that
came back from the ambulance were that he was doing well, his eyes were
open. They got him into the emergency room at Kingsville --

Q His eyes were open when you found him, then, right?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes. One eye was open. But they got him in
the emergency room in the small hospital at Kingsville, checked him out
further there, then lifted him by helicopter from there into Corpus
Christi, which has a big city hospital and all of the equipment.

Q So by now what time is it?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't have an exact time line, although he
got there sometime that evening, 8:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m.

Q So this is several hours after the incident?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I would say he was in Kingsville in the
emergency room probably within, oh, less than an hour after they left
the ranch.

Q Now, you're a seasoned hunter --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I am, well, for the last 12, 15 years.

Q Right, and so you know all the procedures and how to maintain
the proper line and distance between you and other hunters, and all
that. So how, in your judgment, did this happen? Who -- what caused
this? What was the responsibility here?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, ultimately, I'm the guy who pulled the
trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. And you can talk about all
of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that's the bottom
line. And there's no -- it was not Harry's fault. You can't blame
anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.
And I say that is something I'll never forget.

Q Now, what about this -- it was said you were hunting out of
vehicles. Was that because you have to have the vehicles, or was that
because that's your -- the way you chose to hunt that day?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, the way -- this is a big ranch, about
50,000 acres. You cover a lot of territory on a quail hunt. Birds are
oftentimes -- you're looking for coveys. And these are wild quail,
they're not pen-raised. And you hunt them

-- basically, you have people out on horseback, what we call outriders,
who are looking for the quail. And when they spot them, they've got
radios, you'll go over, and say, get down and flush the quail. So you
need --

Q So you could be a distance of a miles from where you spot
quail until the next place you may find them?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, usually you'll be, you know, maybe a few
hundred yards. Might be farther than that; could be a quarter of a
mile.

Q Does that kind of hunting only go forward on foot, or is it
mostly --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, you always -- in that part of the country,
you always are on vehicles, until you get up to where the covey is.
Then you get off -- there will be dogs down, put down; the dogs will
point to covey. And then you walk up on the covey. And as the covey
flushes, that's when you shoot.

Q Was anybody drinking in this party?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No. You don't hunt with people who drink.
That's not a good idea. We had --

Q So he wasn't, and you weren't?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Correct. We'd taken a break at lunch -- go
down under an old -- ancient oak tree there on the place, and have a
barbecue. I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back
to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hour-long tour of ranch,
with a ranch hand driving the vehicle, looking at game. We didn't go
back into the field to hunt quail until about, oh, sometime after 3:00
p.m.

The five of us who were in that party were together all afternoon.
Nobody was drinking, nobody was under the influence.

Q Now, what thought did you give, then, to how -- you must have
known that this was -- whether it was a matter of state, or not, was
news. What thought did you give that evening to how this news should be
transmitted?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, my first reaction, Brit, was not to
think: I need to call the press. My first reaction is: My friend,
Harry, has been shot and we've got to take care of him. That evening
there were other considerations. We wanted to make sure his family was
taken care of. His wife was on the ranch. She wasn't with us when it
happened, but we got her hooked up with the ambulance on the way to the
hospital with Harry. He has grown children; we wanted to make sure they
were notified, so they didn't hear on television that their father had
been shot. And that was important, too.

But we also didn't know what the outcome here was going to be. We
didn't know for sure what kind of shape Harry was in. We had
preliminary reports, but they wanted to do a CAT scan, for example, to
see how -- whether or not there was any internal damage, whether or not
any vital organ had been penetrated by any of the shot. We did not know
until Sunday morning that we could be confident that everything was
probably going to be okay.

Q When did the family -- when had the family been informed?
About what time?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, his wife -- his wife knew as he was
leaving the ranch --

Q Right, what about his children?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I didn't make the calls to his children, so I
don't know exactly when those contacts were made. One of his daughters
had made it to the hospital by the next day when I visited. But one of
the things I'd learned over the years was first reports are often wrong
and you need to really wait and nail it down. And there was enough
variation in the reports we were getting from the hospital, and so forth
-- a couple of people who had been guests at the ranch went up to the
hospital that evening; one of them was a doctor, so he obviously had
some professional capabilities in terms of being able to relay messages.
But we really didn't know until Sunday morning that Harry was probably
going to be okay, that it looked like there hadn't been any serious
damage to any vital organ. And that's when we began the process of
notifying the press.

Q Well, what -- you must have recognized, though, with all your
experience in Washington, that this was going to be a big story.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, true, it was unprecedented. I've been
in the business for a long time and never seen a situation quite like
this. We've had experiences where the President has been shot; we've
never had a situation where the Vice President shot somebody.

Q Not since Aaron Burr.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Not since Aaron Burr --

Q Different circumstances.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Different circumstances.

Q Well, did it occur to you that sooner was -- I mean, the one
thing that we've all kind of learned over the last several decades is
that if something like this happens, as a rule sooner is better.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, if it's accurate. If it's accurate.
And this is a complicated story.

Q But there were some things you knew. I mean, you knew the man
had been shot, you knew he was injured, you knew he was in the hospital,
and you knew you'd shot him.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Correct.

Q And you knew certainly by sometime that evening that the
relevant members of his family had been called. I realize you didn't
know the outcome, and you could argue that you don't know the outcome
today, really, finally.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: As we saw, if we'd put out a report Saturday
night on what we heard then -- one report came in that said, superficial
injuries. If we'd gone with a statement at that point, we'd have been
wrong. And it was also important, I thought, to get the story out as
accurately as possible, and this is a complicated story that, frankly,
most reporters would never have dealt with before, so --

Q Had you discussed this with colleagues in the White House,
with the President, and so on?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I did not. The White House was notified, but
I did not discuss it directly, myself. I talked to Andy Card, I guess
it was Sunday morning.

Q Not until Sunday morning? Was that the first conversation
you'd had with anybody in the -- at the White House?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q And did you discuss this with Karl Rove at any time, as has
been reported?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, Karl talks to -- I don't recall talking to
Karl. Karl did talk with Katherine Armstrong, who is a good mutual
friend to both of us. Karl hunts at the Armstrong, as well --

Q Say that again?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I said Karl has hunted at the Armstrong, as
well, and we're both good friends of the Armstrongs and of Katherine
Armstrong. And Katherine suggested, and I agreed, that she would go
make the announcement, that is that she'd put the story out. And I
thought that made good sense for several reasons. First of all, she was
an eye-witness. She'd seen the whole thing. Secondly, she'd grown up
on the ranch, she'd hunted there all of her life. Third, she was the
immediate past head of the Texas Wildlife and Parks Department, the game
control commission in the state of Texas, an acknowledged expert in all
of this.

And she wanted to go to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, which is
the local newspaper, covers that area, to reporters she knew. And I
thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as
possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting. And then it
would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the website, which
is the way it went out. And I thought that was the right call.

Q What do you think now?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I still do. I still think that the
accuracy was enormously important. I had no press person with me, I
didn't have any press people with me. I was there on a private weekend
with friends on a private ranch. In terms of who I would contact to
have somebody who would understand what we're even talking about, the
first person that we talked with at one point, when Katherine first
called the desk to get hold of a reporter didn't know the difference
between a bullet and a shotgun -- a rifle bullet and a shotgun. And
there are a lot of basic important parts of the story that required some
degree of understanding. And so we were confident that Katherine was
the right one, especially because she was an eye-witness and she could
speak authoritatively on it. She probably knew better than I did what
had happened since I'd only seen one piece of it.

Q By the next morning, had you spoken again to Mr. Whittington?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: The next morning I talked to his wife. And
then I went to the hospital in Corpus Christi and visited with him.

Q When was that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, it was shortly after noon on Sunday.

Q Now, by that time had the word gone out to the newspaper?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I believe it had. I can't remember what time
Katherine actually talked to the reporter. She had trouble that morning
actually finding a reporter. But they finally got connected with the
reporter, and that's when the story then went out.

Q Now, it strikes me that you must have known that this was
going to be a national story --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, sure.

Q -- and it does raise the question of whether you couldn't have
headed off this beltway firestorm if you had put out the word to the
national media, as well as to the local newspaper so that it could post
it on its website. I mean, in retrospect, wouldn't that have been the
wise course --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, who is going to do that? Are they going
to take my word for what happened? There is obviously --

Q Well, obviously, you could have put the statement out in the
name of whoever you wanted. You could put it out in the name of Mrs.
Armstrong, if you wanted to. Obviously, that's -- she's the one who
made the statement.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Exactly. That's what we did. We went with
Mrs. Armstrong. We had -- she's the one who put out the statement. And
she was the most credible one to do it because she was a witness. It
wasn't me in terms of saying, here's what happened, it was --

Q Right, understood. Now, the suspicion grows in some quarters
that you -- that this was an attempt to minimize it, by having it first
appear in a little paper and appear like a little hunting incident down
in a remote corner of Texas.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There wasn't any way this was going to be
minimized, Brit; but it was important that it be accurate. I do think
what I've experienced over the years here in Washington is as the media
outlets have proliferated, speed has become sort of a driving force,
lots of time at the expense of accuracy. And I wanted to make sure we
got it as accurate as possible, and I think Katherine was an excellent
choice. I don't know who you could get better as the basic source for
the story than the witness who saw the whole thing.

Q When did you first speak to -- if you spoke to Andy Card at,
what, mid-day, you said, on Sunday?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Sometime Sunday morning.

Q And what about -- when did you first -- when, if ever, have
you discussed it with the President?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I talked to him about it yesterday, or Monday
-- first on Monday, and then on Tuesday, too.

Q There is reporting to the effect that some in the White House
feel you kind of -- well, look at what Scott McClellan went through the
last couple days. There's some sense -- and perhaps not unfairly so --
that you kind of hung him out to dry. How do you feel about that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, Scott does a great job and it's a tough
job. It's especially a tough job under these conditions and
circumstances. I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was
upset because, to some extent, it was about them -- they didn't like the
idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of The New
York Times. But it strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is
just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is, especially for
covering a major story in south Texas.

Q Well, perhaps so, but isn't there an institution here present
at the White House that has long-established itself as the vehicle
through which White House news gets out, and that's the pool?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I had no press person with me, no coverage
with me, no White House reporters with me. I'm comfortable with the way
we did it, obviously. You can disagree with that, and some of the White
House press corps clearly do. But, no, I've got nothing but good things
to say about Scott McClellan and Dan Bartlett. They've got a tough job
to do and they do it well. They urged us to get the story out. The
decision about how it got out, basically, was my responsibility.

Q That was your call.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: That was my call.

Q All the way.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: All the way. It was recommended to me --
Katherine Armstrong wanted to do it, as she said, and I concurred in
that; I thought it made good sense.

Q Now, you're talking to me today -- this is, what, Wednesday?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Wednesday.

Q What about just coming out yourself Monday/Tuesday -- how
come?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, part of it obviously has to do with the
status of Harry Whittington. And it's a difficult subject to talk
about, frankly, Brit. But most especially I've been very concerned
about him and focused on him and feel more comfortable coming out today
because of the fact that his circumstances have improved, he's gotten by
what was a potential crisis yesterday, with respect to the developments
concerning his heart. I think this decision we made, that this was the
right way to do it.

Q Describe if you can your conversations with him, what you've
said to him and the attitude he's shown toward you in the aftermath of
this.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He's been fantastic. He's a gentleman in
every respect. He oftentimes expressed more concern about me than about
himself. He's been in good spirits, unfailingly cheerful --

Q What did he say about that? You said, "expressed concern"
about you -- what did he say?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, when I first saw him in the hospital,
for example, he said, look, he said, I don't want this to create
problems for you. He literally was more concerned about me and the
impact on me than he was on the fact that he'd been shot. He's a -- I
guess I'd describe him as a true Texas gentleman, a very successful
attorney, successful businessman in Austin; a gentleman in every respect
of the word. And he's been superb.

Q For you, personally, how would you -- you said this was one of
the worst days of your life. How so?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: What happened to my friend as a result of my
actions, it's part of this sudden, you know, in less than a second, less
time than it takes to tell, going from what is a very happy, pleasant
day with great friends in a beautiful part of the country, doing
something I love -- to, my gosh, I've shot my friend. I've never
experienced anything quite like that before.

Q Will it affect your attitude toward this pastime you so love
in the future?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I can't say that. You know, we canceled the
Sunday hunt. I said, look I'm not -- we were scheduled to go out again
on Sunday and I said I'm not going to go on Sunday, I want to focus on
Harry. I'll have to think about it.

Q Some organizations have said they hoped you would find a less
violent pastime.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, it's brought me great pleasure over the
years. I love the people that I've hunted with and do hunt with; love
the outdoors, it's part of my heritage, growing up in Wyoming. It's
part of who I am. But as I say, the season is ending, I'm going to let
some time pass over it and think about the future.

Q On another subject, court filings have indicated that Scooter
Libby has suggested that his superiors -- unidentified -- authorized the
release of some classified information. What do you know about that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's nothing I can talk about, Brit. This is
an issue that's been under investigation for a couple of years. I've
cooperated fully, including being interviewed, as well, by a special
prosecutor. All of it is now going to trial. Scooter is entitled to
the presumption of innocence. He's a great guy. I've worked with him
for a long time, have enormous regard for him. I may well be called as
a witness at some point in the case and it's, therefore, inappropriate
for me to comment on any facet of the case.

Q Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a Vice
President has the authority to declassify information?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There is an executive order to that effect.

Q There is.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q Have you done it?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I've certainly advocated
declassification and participated in declassification decisions. The
executive order --

Q You ever done it unilaterally?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't want to get into that. There is an
executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and
obviously focuses first and foremost on the President, but also includes
the Vice President.

Q There have been two leaks, one that pertained to possible
facilities in Europe; and another that pertained to this NSA matter.
There are officials who have had various characterizations of the degree
of damage done by those. How would you characterize the damage done by
those two reports?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There clearly has been damage done.

Q Which has been the more harmful, in your view?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't want to get into just sort of ranking
them, then you get into why is one more damaging than the other. One of
the problems we have as a government is our inability to keep secrets.
And it costs us, in terms of our relationship with other governments, in
terms of the willingness of other intelligence services to work with us,
in terms of revealing sources and methods. And all of those elements
enter into some of these leaks.

Q Mr. Vice President, thank you very much for doing this.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Brit.

END 2:28 P.M. EST

This is what the State of Texas thinks of hunting accidents that injure innocent people if your surname happens to be Hispanic and you're not the big, white boozehound Vice President of the United States:

An undocumented Mexican immigrant was shot and killed Sunday evening in an apparent hunting accident on a Webb County ranch owned by the family of former U.S. diplomat John G. Hurd.

"The illegals were crouching out in the brush. They said they mistook this guy for a hog," said Webb County Sheriff Juan Garza....

Juan Garza Mendoza, 34, an employee of the ranch, was charged Monday with manslaughter, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison....

Mendoza had apparently hit Barrera Vasquez while shooting at a feral hog, and immediately contacted authorities after the shooting, Hurd said.

Sheriff Garza said interviews with three of the victim's Mexican traveling companions and the others in the ranch hunting party led him to rule out anything but an accidental shooting.

"They mistakenly shot a human being," he said. "It's reckless. It's inexcusable."

Mendoza was indicted for manslaughter but the district attorney eventually dropped the charges in favor of a civil suit. The court found the ranch owner was liable to the tune of $20 million in the case. No wonder Katharine Armstrong was so anxious to have the Texas Parks and Wildlive Division (of which she was the former Chairman) come out and give Dick a pass on the whole thing, saying no alcohol or drugs were involved in the incident -- although there is no indication that they interviewed and/or tested Cheney or anyone else involved in the matter in a timely fashion.

(hat tip to Fred Vincy at Stone Court)

Update: Dan Abrams is on MSNBC giving Cheney a pass, saying that "The Vice President didn't do anything wrong" and finding nothing irregular about the fact that he was not interviewed by law enforcement officials for 15 hours after the incident. Is Abrams the amazing Kreskin or something? How would he, or anyone, know that "the Vice President didn't do anything wrong" -- especially since Armstrong is now backtracking on her story:

"There may be a beer or two in there," she said, 'but remember not everyone in the party was shooting.'"

These are the questions you should be asking, Dan.

Update II: The beer quote seems to now be scrubbed from the MSNBC site, though you can still see it cached in the Google abstract.

Update III: Remember this isn't the first scrubbing we've found in this matter. To their credit CBS PublicEye addressed it here, though the reporter's explanation is something less than satisfactory. posted by Jane Hamsher @ 2:40 PM


From HERE

More Questions Raised About Delay in Reporting Cheney Misfire

By Greg Mitchell

Published: February 13, 2006 10:20 PM ET updated Monday
NEW YORK The more than 18-hour delay in news emerging that the vice president of the United States had shot a man, sending him to an intensive care unit with his wounds, grew even more curious Monday with word from the White House that President Bush had been informed of the incident Saturday but not immediately about Dick Cheney's role.

Earlier, E&P had learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occurred and called Vice President Cheney's office for confirmation.

The confirmation was made but it is not known for certain that Cheney's office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting if the reporter, Jaime Powell of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, had not received word from the ranch owner.

One of Powell's colleagues at the Corpus Christi paper, Beth Francesco, told E&P that Powell had built up a strong source relationship with the prominent ranch owner, Katharine Armstrong, which led to the tip. Powell is chief political reporter for the paper and also covers the area where the ranch is located south of Sarita, about 60 miles from Corpus Christi. Armstrong did not notify reporters at larger papers in Dallas, Houston, Austin, or other cities.

Armstrong called the paper Sunday morning looking for Powell, who was not at work. When they did talk, Armstrong revealed the shooting of prominent Austin attorney Harry Whittington, who is now in stable condition in a hospital. Powell then called Cheney's office for the confirmation around midday. The newspaper broke the story at mid-afternoon -- not a word about it had appeared before then.

The Cheney spokesman with whom Powell spoke, Lea Anne McBride, would not comment on whether the Cheney office or the White House would have ever released the information had the Caller-Times not contacted them.

"I’m not going to speculate," McBride said, according to Powell. "When you put the call into me, I was able to confirm that account."

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, peppered with questions about the incident at his Monday morning press "gaggle," explained that the White House had deferred to the Vice President's office in the matter, and the latter deferred to the ranch owner.

McClellan said that the first reports that came to the White House only said that a member of Cheney's party had been shot but did not indicate that Cheney was the shooter. Top Bush aide Karl Rove later informed the president of Cheney's involvement but McClellan refused to say precisely when, beyond saying it was "in a relatively reasonable" amount of time.

The New York Times observed Monday that reporters "seemed frustrated that Mr. McClellan could not tell them exactly when Mr. Bush learned that the vice president himself had shot Mr. Whittington." As for McClellan's knowledge--he said that he did not know about Cheney as triggerman until Sunday morning.

Francesco, at the Corpus Christi paper, said she felt it was a bit odd that her newsroom had not received any information about the shooting since "we often call law enforcement in the area, even on weekends. We checked in and didn’t hear anything about it." In some states, all serious shooting incidents must be immediately reported to police.

Hospital officials on Monday continued to offer few details on the victim's condition, but said he was "very stable" and that pellets were possibly still being removed. Sally Whittington told The Dallas Morning News her father was being observed because of swelling from some of the welts on his neck. His face "looks like chicken pox, kind of," she said.

A hospital spokesman said Whittington was in the intensive care unit because his condition warranted it, but he didn't elaborate. Whittington sent word that he would have no comment on the incident out of respect for Cheney.

While E&P was first to raise questions about the delay Sunday afternoon, Frank James, reporter in the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau, put his own spin on it later in the day, asking, "How is it that Vice President Cheney can shoot a man, albeit accidentally, on Saturday during a hunting trip and the American public not be informed of it until today?"

Indeed, others raised questions as well. "There was no immediate reason given as to why the incident wasn't reported until Sunday," the Dallas Morning News observed. "The sheriff's office in Kenedy County did not respond to phone calls Sunday."

The president, who was at the White House over the weekend, was informed about the incident in Texas after it happened Saturday by Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and was updated on Sunday, press secretary Scott McClellan said.

But neither the White House nor the vice president's staff announced the shooting. The Washington Post reported late Sunday that Cheney's office did not make a public announcement.

Asked by The New York Times why it did not make the news known, Cheney spokeswoman McBride said, "We deferred to the Armstrongs regarding what had taken place at their ranch."

Armstrong said later, according to The Associated Press, that everyone at the ranch was so "focused" on Whittington's health Saturday that it wasn't until Sunday she called the Caller-Times to report the accident.

"It was accidental, a hunting accident," Sheriff Ramon Salinas III of Kenedy County told The New York Times, adding that the Secret Service notified him Saturday of the episode. "They did what they had to according to law."

In an odd disparity, Armstrong told the Houston Chronicle that Whittington, 78, was "bruised more than bloodied" in the incident and "his pride was hurt more than anything else." Yet he was airlifted to a hospital and has spent more than a day in an intensive care unit.

The Chronicle also reports Monday that hunting accidents are very rare in Texas. In 2004, it said, the state's one million-plus hunters were involved in only 29 hunting-related accidents (19 involving firearms), four of which were fatal.

Time magazine on its Web site observed that Cheney is scheduled to join President Bush on Monday afternoon when he takes questions from reporters in the Oval Office, following a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. "White House aides can be expected to say that the Vice President did not shoot Whittington, which suggests a bullet, but rather sprayed him with birdshot, a type of ammunition made up of tiny pieces of lead or steel," Time predicted.

On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune's James wrote on the Washington bureau's blog at the newspaper's site, "When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance, that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?

"The vice president is well known for preferring to operate in secret. ... Some secrecy, especially when it comes to the executing the duties of president or vice president, is understandable and expected by Americans.

"But when the vice president's office, or the White House, delays in reporting a shooting like Saturday's to the public via the media, it needlessly raises suspicions and questions of trust. And it may just further the impression held by many, rightly or wrongly, that the White House doesn't place the highest premium on keeping the public fully and immediately informed."

The New York Times reported late Sunday that Whittington was commissioner of the state's Funeral Service Commission. In 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, named Whittington to head the Commission, which licenses and regulates funeral directors and embalmers in the state. "When he was named," the Times revealed, "a former executive director of the commission, Eliza May, was suing the state, saying that she had been fired because she investigated a funeral home chain that was owned by a friend of Mr. Bush.

"The suit was settled in 2001, but the details were not disclosed."
___

Latest update, Monday p.m.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan explained Monday that the White House knew about the accidental shooting of a fellow hunter on Saturday night, but deferred to the vice president's office, which did not announce it. The vice president's office in turn deferred to Katharine Armstrong, the ranch owner in Texas where the shooting took place. She called a Corpus Christi reporter at midday Sunday and only then did the news come out.

McClellan also said Monday, according to The Associated Press, that "Bush and senior aides were told Saturday night by the staff of the White House Situation Room that somebody in the Cheney's hunting party was shot, but he said he was not told until Sunday morning that Cheney was the shooter. He said he contacted the vice president's office and everyone agreed they needed to get the information to the public quickly."

Reviewing the late-morning press briefing today, the National Journal's Hotline site said that reporters reacted with "astonishment" to McClellan's admission about not knowing about Cheney's role in the shooting until Sunday. It noted that McClellan did everything possible to imply that the responsibility for any bungling resides in the vice president's office.

McClellan also said he did not know about a report that the Secret Service prevented a deputy sheriff from interviewing Cheney.

Courtesy of USAtoday.com, here is a sampling of the briefing, featuring NBC's David Gregory.

GREGORY: "The vice president of the United States shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell a local Corpus Christi newspaper, not the White House press corps at large or notify the public in a national way."

MCCLELLAN: "Well, I think we all know that once it is made public, then it's going to be news, and all of you are going to be seeking that information. The vice president's office was ready to provide additional information to reporters. There wa