Cheney's hunting disaster: fatal crack on the dam?

[Domitan]

I wrote this on dailykos, but thought I'd share it here too...

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On different websites, I've read many posts scorning on all the attention paid to the Cheney hunting fiasco.

Major Point: It's major media distractor about a relatively unimportant story that swerves people away from legitimate scandals such as Plame, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, wiretapping, etc.

I have to disagree on this as I find this story to be of high significance and possible resounding effects in the days ahead.

As some astute observers have noted, Cheney's shooting of Whittington and the subsequent coverup serve as a metaphor for the Bush Administration. It's now plain for all to see! In the past spin has been good enough to justify or minimize the misdeeds (e.g., wiretapping, Plame), and to absolve Bush and his gang of direct responsibility (e.g., Katrina, Abu Ghraib). For the past year, more and more have begun to see through the massive bullshit from Bush and his cronies, but a solid minority (35-45%) still stubbornly stood behind them. Of course, a complicit media only helped them get away scot-free for the most part. Where is the outrage??? Sure, plenty of us are. Just look at sites like this here, and listen to conversations with many of your friends and families. Plenty of people are outraged. BUT BUT BUT not enough to smash through the walls (even if it's illusory) with the shit-faced grins and smirks of the GOP enthroned by the military-industry-media complex. Good people speak out from time to time (Sheehan, Richard Clarke, widows of 9/11, Lawrence Wilkerson, etc.). More and more people do come to see the light more clearly, but not enough to tear down the walls of GOP-Jericho.

It may very well be possible that Cheney had damage-control plans in regards to the Plame Scandal, even if he ended up indicted...with no small part due to the media and the powerful influences behind Cheney. Now with this hunting fuckup, Cheney is Chappaquidicked. He and others compulsively went into cover-up mode with no consideration that simple honesty, humility, and remorse would have at least partially absolved him. Plenty of people (sadfucks as they may be) can justify for the White House's coverups regarding wiretapping and the Katrina response...but this...not this. Only the most demented, morally depraved, and spiritually ugly people can stand proud with Cheney in the midst of all this.

Now with this Cheney hunting snafu and the coverup, it's far too transparent to many, even among some of the stubborn GOPers and the media sychophants. I daresay that Cheney will not come out of this scenario unscathed. Cheney is fucked.

Tax evasion brought down Al Capone.
The recording tapes brought down Nixon.
This hunting mishap and coverups shall bring down Cheney.

All of them deserved punishment for much more, but they served well as the fatal crack that burst their dams. As for Cheney, it's very plausible that it will be so, and maybe more. Can't plame me for thinking so.

[Greeby]

1. It's always the little things that bring down the biggest monsters

Funny how that keeps happening :shrug:

[Frank Cannon]

7. It always happens eventually, and it's ALL due to arrogance

Cheney didn't need to be careful like you or I would be if we were handling a live firearm around friends. The laws, ethics, rules, etc., of firearms (or anything else, for that matter) don't apply to high and mighty people like him. And so he got either totally careless or downright ruthless. (We don't know the whole story yet.)

All of the "powerful" people fall victim to their own foolish pride sooner or later. That same story has been repreated throughout all eternity, which is why it's one of the main lessons the Bible teaches.

[greiner3]

2. My only fear, given that this should bring about cheney's big one,

Is who the hell will rove bring in that's worse than the sociopath we call cheney?

[Domitan]

18. Hmm, let me think

Richard Simmons?

[rodeodance]

3. the metaphor--The WH can't shoot straight-whether its Iraq, katrina, wmd's

or whatever. It is a good metaphor.

[madaboutharry]

4. The more I think about this the more I conclude

that it is these simple stories, and at its core this is simple, that bring people down. Why? Because Cheney's behavior can be viewed in terms of human decency and how one would act themself. It is hard for the public to grasp the deep details of policy, but it is easy to ask yourself how you would act if you accidently shot someone. People can put themselves in the situation. Once they do that, he loses. I think this is what caused Clinton such trouble. People thought "If I were the president, would I do that?" Clinton made the right wingers go nuts, and democrats were really pissed at him for being so stupid.

[Domitan]

16. Yes, this is very hard to explain away and justify

You'd have to be a soulless worm like Hannity to do so. There's absolutely nothing partisan and political about this. It's just a human story that really can't be spun away unlike the major stories that can be twisted.

[thebigidea]

5. it'll take more than an old guy shot in the face to bring down Cheney

even if the lawyer dies, it'll be forgotten in two weeks apart from occasional jokes on the Daily Show and Letterman.

[adarling]

6. it sure seems like everything is going to come down

Just seems alot has been piling on and everything is just going to topple over.

[skip fox]

8. Did Cheney shoot him in the back? Is that what they're worried about?

That the Dems can cry the Cheney shoot people like he shoots facts (WMDs, Iraq's association with tgerrorism, etc.)?????

[Coastie for Truth]

9. It is the coverup

and the failed attempt to justify the cover up. This is the Bush-Cheney-Rove style.

[cantstandbush]

10. I believe they waited for 24 hours to clear the alcohol from Cheneny.

I really believe that he had a few under his belt (monitor). Wait until the book the Secret Service writes about Cheney.

[oscarguy]

14. It sure crossed my mind. The local autorities were kept away from it...

from what I have read. ...Oscar

[kzootalker]

11. It's always about the coverup!!

The coverup is what always brings the bad bastards down........

[jimshoes]

12. I'm reminded of the old

nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again. To me, I do think Cheney's done for from this, coupled with all the rest he'll never recover and be as before.

[oscarguy]

13. I Hope you are right. Very often it is these relatively minor incidences..

that bring these bastards down. They hit event their supporters on a visceral level that in some very real way crystallizes just who they really are in the mind of the masses. Let us all see just what does become of this. ...Oscar

[Domitan]

15. Nicely put

Very succint and true!

[susu369]

17. From the most curious twists truth is revealed

I'm calling this "The Revenge of the Entrapped Quails" - Karma and Mother Nature come a-callin'.

From James Wolcott's blog:

Andrew Sullivan quotes an eloquent chastisement from Matthew Scully, author of Dominion: The Power of Men, the Suffering of Animals, and a Call to Mercy, regarding the callous disregard demonstrated by Vice President Cheney.

"Birds are not skeet. They are living creatures, 'the fowl of the air,' and it is unkind and dishonorable to treat them this way. The sportsman shoots in jest, to paraphrase a saying, but the creature dies in earnest."

=snip=

It also gives a style of hunting that can charitably be described as shooting fish in a barrel with fine Italian shotguns far more old-fashioned American macho credit than it deserves, as if wealthy hunters driving Hummers around a private ranch to blast away at cage-raised 'prey' hold any fair comparison at all with the kind of tough, ready men of the outdoors..."

[Domitan]

20. My other hope

that people get so turned off by this pseudo-hunting bullshit, and that real hunters and gamesmen make a strong movement to ridicule this "shooting-fish-in-barrel" shit.

[spanone]

19. I think a man shooting another man hits home with most people.

and you are right, this incident is the quitensential essence of this whole lying administration. From the Cheney private 'energy' meetings, to the lies about wmd's right down to the poundage, to the arrogance of the wiretapping of Americans, to the 'who gives a shit' attitude toward Katrina and on and on. I think while accidents happen, most people say they are sorry.