Some co-workers were wondering over lunch why the Deadeye Dick story matters. Isn’t it just fluff? No one really believes it was a malicious shooting, why is an accident more than a humorous puff piece, distracting us from real news?
AmericaBlog has a good answer (emphasis added):
It matters because this is our government. And when our government starts acting all Soviet, pretending like they’re untouchable gods and we’re just small children who wouldn’t understand, that’s a problem. When the vice president almost kills a man – and the verdict is still out on whether this will turn into a negligent homicide case – the public has a right to know what happened. Was Cheney drunk? Is he ill? Are his cognitive abilities slipping?
With all due respect, it was cute that the Republicans kept Strom Thurmond propped up, Evita style, for years after he was no longer a functioning Senator, but with our vice president we have the right to know if he’s still got his wits about him or not – especially when our vice president is really our president.
And in terms of Cheney’s “interview,” Crooks & Liars has the Cafferty smack-down:
BLITZER: First of all, Jack, what did you make of Dick Cheney’s interview today?
CAFFERTY: Well, I obviously didn’t see it ’cause it hasn’t been released in its entirety yet, but I — I would guess it didn’t exactly represent a profile in courage for the vice president to wander over there to the F-word network for a sit down with Brit Hume. I mean, that’s a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain’t it? I mean, where was the news conference? Where was the — where was the access to all of the members of the media? I don’t know. You know? Whatever.
