No Questions or I'll Shoot

While the rest of the news media falls over itself wondering why the Vice President did not announce shooting someone immediately, The Weather Vane Opinion Department wishes to take a more holistic perspective on Dick's mishap.

First, is anyone really all that surprised that the Vice President shot someone? He is, after all, one of the leaders behind thousands of deaths in Iraq. No, he has not pulled the trigger in any of these killings, but his handiwork is quite evident in the Iraq War. The Administration even takes pride in what they have done in Iraq over these past couple years.

Concerning these actions in Iraq, pictures are worth more than a thousand words as SBS TV in Australia broadcast new pictures of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal on Wednesday. The Bush Administration unsurprisingly tried to keep these pictures from the public eye. They decried the release of these pictures as fuel for the fire of terrorism. One State Department official even said that the pictures should be kept private for the sake of the prisoners being tortured in the pictures.

As touching as their compassionate conservatism is, the question of whether or not to release these pictures flies out the window when one remembers Cheney's fight last October to allow the CIA to use torture. Perhaps the Administration has forgotten the horrors of torture. Perhaps they hope we have forgotten the ugliness of torture instead.

I would be shortchanging Vice President Cheney if I said that he always tries to hide information from the press. Amidst the reports of Cheney's quail hunting trip, former Cheney aide Scooter Libby implicated his superiors in the leak of a CIA operative's name. As the Vice President's Chief of Staff, Libby had few people that he could call his superiors. It is enough for many congresspeople to call for an investigation of Vice President Cheney.

Combined with the release of Congressional reports on Hurricane Katrina that place heavy blame on the Administration, the White House has very heavy allegations knocking on its door. Thankfully our leaders are remaining cool under all this pressure. The Vice President has his hunting to keep his nerves under control. President Bush, on the other hand, is keeping his nose to the grindstone. An exasperated White House Spokesperson Scott McCellan told reporters asking about the Cheney shooting debacle on Tuesday that the President was moving on to "most pressing priorities before the American people." Very shortly after Mr. McCellan's remark, President Bush welcomed the University of Texas football team to the White House.

Football admittedly ranks high in my personal priorities. I would even call it a pressing priority when the Redskins were still playing. But even I turn off the game when it is finished. The Texas Longhorns won the national championship over a month ago. On Monday the President congratulated the Chicago White Sox for winning the World Series. The World Series ended in October.

Such tomfoolery in our halls of power remind me of Virginia Delegate John Reid who accidentally discharged his pistol in the Virginia General Assembly Building in late January. When asked why the pistol he carries everyday for protection went off, Delegate Reid was at a loss for words.

The strong supporter of gun rights could not explain why the gun went off. Reid could only offer his thanks that no one was hurt by his gun. Reid did not touch on how he and other supporters of gun rights have blocked legislation that would ban concealed weapons from legislative buildings and others so accidents like his could not occur. He could not explain why the gun that he carried for protection had become more dangerous to him than the attackers he feared.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney have already made similar mistakes in judgment like Delegate Reid's mistake. More importantly, where Delegate Reid's trigger happiness only gave rise to a few jokes at his expense, Bush and Cheney's mistakes have cost lives in Iraq, New Orleans, and elsewhere. When they go in front of the cameras and try to skirt blame as Reid did, we must not allow them to act dumb.

Contact Galen at galen.wenger@emu.edu