Another reason to wait 18 hours to call the cops? For alcohol to leave your system? And Cheney didn’t have a hunting license. Better to be called a bumbling hunter than a drunk poacher, or the person who authorized Scooter Libby to out a CIA agent.

Why doesn’t someone just march into the hospital in Corpus Christi and find out if Cheney’s hunting victim is already plain dead?

First we hear his victim was hit by “bird-shot” and the vice-president says he’s spoken to Weatherspoon on the phone and everything’s fine. Then we hear the victim had a “mild-heart-attack.” Next we might hear that a gas leak in the hospital wing has caused a minor explosion and poor Mister Bill has been blown to bits.

Eighteen hours before any reporters were given the story, maybe blown-up bits were already what was left of Cheney’s hunting companion. Soviet era hunting trips used to come back mysteriously minus a member or two of the Politburo.

2.
This reminds me of how the media is reporting the stories of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. First there is a delay, then the story is unfolded to minimize the emotional impact upon the American public.

A multiple-US-casualty day in Iraq this time last year serves as an unfortunate example. A truck carrying 19 American servicewomen to work at checkpoints was hit by a suicide-bomber. First there were two casualties, four missing, seven injured. Over the course of two weeks those missing were revealed to have died. They didn’t die later, they died immediately with the original two. Net result? The military didn’t have to report that six women died that day.