Finally, the media feel they have Cheney's Smoking Gun

The Dick Cheney hunting accident shooting isn't all that significant in the big scheme. He hunts with lobbyists and connected fat cats frequently, and nearly a hundred hunters die annually in accidents in Texas. Cheney's policies have led to tens of thousands of people dying during his current reign, too. But all that's too nuanced for the press to grasp.

Finally, "WE HAVE A SMOKING GUN!" the Press intones. It is the search for the smoking gun, like the Watergate Tapes, or whatever physical symbol the press needs, that have obsessed the media since the age of the atomic bomb, intercontinental ballistic missiles, television dominated news and social interaction, and terrorism. Consequently, there seems to be a nearly impossible hurdle to hold the imperial Executive Branch accountable.

In this incident, we have the mean-faced sneering Cheney shooting his friend at close range in the face and chest. All at once we have a physical and public manifestation symbolizing an administration's homicidal and reckless impulses.

Was Cheney hunting while drunk? If he can't hunt responsibly, can he be trusted to a heartbeat away from the Presidency? If he wasn't drunk, then how can he make such an Elmer Fudd like mistake? Is he "Dead Eye Dick"? Is he part of the "Gang that Can't Shoot Straight"? 2005 was a bad year for the Bush-Cheney regime, and now 2006 is shaping up to be another bad year for them.

This is reminiscent of Bush 41 throwing up at a Japanese state dinner. The Presidency is a grueling job, with lots of travel and exposure to people (and their viruses), but somehow the seemingly effete Bush puking on the Prime Minister partially handed the Presidency to a more vigorous Bill Clinton who had no pretentions of partrician manners.

Back to Cheney, this incident also symbolizes his administration's penchant for secrecy, coverup, and lying, combined with double standards between the administration and everyone else. Why hasn't the Vice President or his office faced the nation about this incident? Why does it take a day for an annoucement to come at all, and then it comes from his lobbyist friend who owns the ranch (and not the Whitehouse)? Why does the victim's heart attack news announcement get further delayed? These questions don't get answered, but their silence implies what is becoming obvious to everyone: these guys aren't careful, they don't care, and in short they are incompetant.

We can get our emails and phone calls tapped in real time. If you are in a Quaker Peace Group you can have your meetings under surveillance. If you are a suspected terrorist you can be disappeared for years at a time without legal representation. But if you work for the Bush-Cheney regime, you're loyalty to almost genocidal policies is rewarded and you continue to get paid by the government and pursue your agenda. While the rest of us wonder who will help us in the next disaster, or if we'll get mysteriously arrested.