CBS News is reporting that the veep -- far from being the cool customer he comes across on television opposite the Bonnie to his Clyde, Brit Hume, is "in a state of meltdown" over the Whittington shooting and had to be pushed to do his softball toss with Fox:
Rove Pushed Cheney to Talk
(Feb. 16) -- President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, pushed Vice President Dick Cheney to speak publicly about shooting a fellow hunter, sources tell CBS News.
Rove worried the vice president's silence on the issue was becoming a political problem, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.
Cheney is in a "state of meltdown" over shooting his friend and the political fallout it has caused, a source close to the Cheney has told CBS News. On Wednesday, he accepted full blame for the incident and defended the decision to not publicly disclose the accident until the following day.
Cheney described when he shot 78-year-old Harry Whittington as "one of the worst days of my life."
"I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney told Fox News Channel in his first public comments since the shooting Saturday in south Texas.
CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports another source within the White House said "you can imagine how upset the vice president is," adding that the Whittington family is worried about Cheney.
...Mm-hm, ok, so was he drunk or what?
In the "Who cares" file: Bush, who reports to Mr. Cheney in the White House, is reportedly satisfied with the "vice president's" taped, semi-public comments on the matter.
... and Capitol Hill Blue says the president really, really did assert himself this time ... really ... eventually... (only he apparently had Karl Rove actually do the talking ... Cheney being a gun-wielder and all...)
In the "much more important news from that interview" file: Steve Clemons has a post on whether the vice president really does have the authority to declassify documents ... or not...
...and BTW the CIA leak case still is the biggest scandal on Dick Cheney's plate, putting aside whatever quail he managed to bag for dinner along with bits of Mr. Whittington's face and chest wall... (sorry, was that mean? I guess it's just hard to feel too sorry for Darth Vader, given what he's doing to the country when he's not out shooting people in the tall grass...)
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
