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Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal?

By TChris, Section Other Politics
Posted on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 03:22:42 PM EST
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by TChris

Almost unbelievable. Almost.

Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago say Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions.

Capitol Hill Blue responds here to claims that it "made the whole thing up."

[Comments now closed due to deterioration into personal attacks. Several have been deleted.]

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    Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? | 29 comments (29 topical)
    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#1)
    by roy on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 03:50:41 PM EST
    I saw this yesterday, via FARK. My BS detector went off right away: no named sources for anything significant, several non sequitors, and speculation mingled with sourced statements. I'll admit Cheney's actions are fishy, but that doesn't make every unsubstantiated accusation credible. Maybe Mr. Blue really did his research, and if so good on him for following up and posting important info. But it's sure written like something handed out to first-semester poli-sci students as an example of what sorts of claims to be skeptical about. My favorite:
    It's a sure bet that [if] a private doctor who treated the victim of Cheney's reckless and drunken actions can't talk to the public then any evidence that shows the Vice President drunk as a skunk will never see the light of day.
    So the doctor's compliance with medical privacy rules and professional ethics indicates a cover-up. I was so proud of this blog's writers for not propagating gossip. Yesterday.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#2)
    by desertswine on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 03:51:29 PM EST
    "Clearly inebriated" means "drunk as a skunk," right? Hammered. Blotto. Wasted.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 03:58:56 PM EST
    Et al - Proof one more time that the Internet is the best and the worst thing that has happened to communications. This story ranks right up there with the "black" child that Clinton was supposed to have sired, and is about as disgusting in motive.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#4)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 04:11:25 PM EST
    Methinks TChris has a sense of humor.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#5)
    by roy on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 04:16:48 PM EST
    Yeah, the joke may have simply gone over us skeptics' heads. It wouldn't be the first time for me, and it won't be the last time for Jim.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 05:14:26 PM EST
    Capitol Hill Blue is not a reputable source. Everything is anonymous and they've never written anything that was corroborated by anyone else. They're always tales about the lack of self-control of Bush and/or Cheney, with only anonymous sources as evidence.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 05:44:56 PM EST
    Where I come from, 'almost unbelievable' does not mean the same thing as 'likely to be true.' Some commenters here seem to disagree.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 05:45:47 PM EST
    Besides, if anonymous quotes from White House sources were off limits, the Washington Post and the New York Times would be out of business!

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 05:46:40 PM EST
    CHB is often reporting "inside White House" stuff that nobody else reports, and with zero sourcing. Doug Thompson usually seems to be the reporter for these stories. I dislike Cheney plenty, and, given that the courts found that the Secret Service could be required to testify in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, I would hope that the Secret Service was interviewed by the local police after Cheney shot the old guy in the face. They were witnesses, and they should have been questioned. But I wouldn't give Capitol Hill Blue even the slightest benefit of a doubt. But I wouldn't have

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 06:21:42 PM EST
    This story ranks right up there with the "black" child that Clinton was supposed to have sired, and is about as disgusting in motive. Never heard that one. Must of been limited to the wacky Newsmax readers. Did hear allegations about McCain. We know where they came from.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 06:37:12 PM EST
    Suppose you'd been drinking and had got yourself in some sort of accident near home and--before the police arrived--you wanted to disguise your sobriety level. What's a good way of doing it? Go make yourself a cocktail. You're upset, right? Let the cops try to prove your blood alcohol is from before the accident. Secretive as Cheney and his homies have been about this, why--of all the details they hid and the few they mentioned-- why did they so pointedly drop the tidbit about Cheney's post-hunting cocktail?

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#12)
    by roy on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 06:42:03 PM EST
    Molly, I'm apalled at your implication that the Vice President of the United States makes his own cocktails. That's what voters are for.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#13)
    by Sailor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 07:08:07 PM EST
    Scripps Howard News Service, 2/13/06: None in the hunting party was drinking alcohol, said the owner, Katharine Armstrong. "No, zero, zippo and I don't drink at all," she said. "No one was drinking."
    Fox News, 2/15/06: HUME: He said he had a beer at lunch and that had been many hours earlier. And it was dusk, around 5:00 p.m., when this incident happened. And he said that, you know, they had lunch out in the field, a barbecue, and he had a beer.
    And we believe Kathy because?
    Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch where Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting partner, is a registered lobbyist who has been paid to lobby the White House, according to records. Armstrong told NBC News in a telephone interview that she has never directly lobbied Cheney as far as she remembers. [...] And she says she does not remember directly lobbying the president himself either.
    CapHillBlue should be easy enough to fact check, and the author was right in his assertions about his other stories. The oddest thing is that my friends and I used to joke about how bushco could shoot a man in broad daylight, with witneses, and somehow bushlickers would spin it to where it was the victim's fault. The only thing left is for bush to devour a white baby on TV.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 07:15:03 PM EST
    My sources tell me that "Doug Thomson" from Capitol Hill Blue is actually former Weekly World News employee "Ed Anger", who was fired for making things up. That's what my sources say, but the records linking the two persons were immediately destroyed by shadowy figures. Meanwhile, last year CHB floated the 'bush is drinking again' stories here and here. -- The Quail Hunter: a group blog

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 07:27:06 PM EST
    "Go make yourself a cocktail. You're upset, right?" Did he really make a Bloody Harry?

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#16)
    by squeaky on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 07:42:31 PM EST
    BMB-judging from your previous comments here at TL and your current unsourced attempt to slander Doug Thompson, you have no creditability. CHB bas in fact been right on the money over and over again. BMB on the other hand is little more than a wannabe frat circle jerk whose posts at TL are nothing more than pathetic self serving attempts to lure the unsuspecting to click the BMB link to boost traffic. At an average of 3 hits a day for an average of :09 seconds, I guess it is not surprising that you would stoop to anything to get more traffic at your site.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#17)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Feb 23, 2006 at 09:18:15 PM EST
    SMMMMMMMMMMACKDOWN!

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#18)
    by jimakaPPJ on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 06:00:47 AM EST
    Randy Paul - You don't know about it so it doesn't exist??? Thanks for the chuckle. Try Google. Squeaky - You write of slander? Like in:
    Posted by Squeaky at September 19, 2005 11:19 PM Rove never needed proof for his smear machine, why should I.
    Sqeaky, no sources, just claims. And the main one is that the Secret Service is the source? Uh huh. Sure. Can you understand this? The agents who were there are known. IF an agent wrote such a report every person who touched that report is known. Now tell me. Do you understand that the ones who DIDN'T will identify the one who DID for job protection? And that everyone understands that? So it just isn't going to happen.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 06:37:34 AM EST
    PPJ, That's not what I wrote and if you had an ounce of intellectual honesty, you'd acknowledge that. Here's what I wrote. Never heard that one. Must of been limited to the wacky Newsmax readers. Apparently I'm correct. It does appear to be limited to the wacky denizens of the loony right. Oh the company you keep.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 06:41:26 AM EST
    Randy Paul - You don't know about it so it doesn't exist??? Never heard that one He said he never heard about it, but it does prove how accurate Drudge can be, since Matt-boy was flogging the story before the blood test results proved the mother's claim about her childs' paternity was wrong. Try Google. You might try taking your advice in this area instead of berating anyone who posts something you've never heard about before, which is your usual MO, as Sgt. Joe Friday might point out if he was a real person, like this Bush fella you keep praising around here. Do you understand that the ones who DIDN'T will identify the one who DID for job protection? Did you use your secret decoder ring to unscramble the secret message that you're passing on to the rest of us?
    And that everyone understands that? So it just isn't going to happen.
    PPJ, now that you can afford your meds, you really should be taking them, especially now that you've been having imaginary dialogs with someone named 'Chief' about mugs of java at someplace you call the "Line Shack", and are showing other symptoms of delusional thinking, as usual. Trust the doctors at the VA, PPJ, they don't want to hospitalize you if it can be avoided ;)

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#21)
    by Jlvngstn on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 07:22:52 AM EST
    Since the story is anti-administration is must be made up. But stories about WMD and Iraq's ties to terrorism were all written citing confidential sources, are all true. Funny how that plays out.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 09:25:48 AM EST
    i trust the veracity of bat boy stories in the world weekly news before i believe anything capitol hill blue has to say. with all due respect, this is beneath talkleft's usual standards.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#23)
    by kdog on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 09:32:40 AM EST
    I heard they were all freebasing with hookers prior to the hunt:)

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 11:26:13 AM EST
    The comment obviously notes that you don't know about because it is limited to the wacky Newsmax.. so it must be wrong... It doesn't exist. While I am Roman Catholic, please don't elevate me to Pope. It's Randy Paul. In any event, you are making an assumption, thus attempting to establish a fact where it in fact doesn't exist. I never said the story didn't exist. I merely said that I had never heard of it and it probably floated around publications like Newsmax and didn't move much past the Freeper/Newsmax/Reed Irvine crowd. Searching Google proved my contention correct. Please don't attack me because of your failure to read and comprehend what I wrote, a problem which appears limited to you.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#26)
    by scarshapedstar on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 11:48:15 AM EST
    My BS detector went off right away: no named sources for anything significant, several non sequitors, and speculation mingled with sourced statements. I'll admit Cheney's actions are fishy, but that doesn't make every unsubstantiated accusation credible.
    Oh, for christ's sake. Yeah, I'm sure Secret Service agents regularly name themselves when criticizing their charges. Me, my BS meter went to 100% when Cheney said he shot a 78-year-old man because he moved too fast.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#28)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 12:17:15 PM EST
    In his response, Thompson of Capital Hill Blue states that he had the NSA spy story in 2004...and it looks like he did.
    In addition, the super-secret National Security Agency, under an executive order signed by President Bush not long after September 11, 2001, began monitoring phone conversations and emails of American citizens even though the agency's charter limits their activities to overseas communications. CHB 6/7/04
    Maybe he does have an inside source, it sure looks like he had the scoop on this one.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#29)
    by roy on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 12:29:01 PM EST
    scar,
    Oh, for christ's sake. Yeah, I'm sure Secret Service agents regularly name themselves when criticizing their charges.
    Ah, so we don't need to be skeptical of unverified, unverifiable claims. That's handy, but if I used that kind of excuse to smear a Leftist without evidence, you'd rightly call me on it in a second.
    Me, my BS meter went to 100% when Cheney said he shot a 78-year-old man because he moved too fast.
    Mine went off when the "30 yards" figure didn't mesh with the "200 pellets" figure touted by the news. I wrote my governor and asked for a real investigation based on that. Doesn't mean every accusation against Cheney is true or immune to healthy skepticism. Hang on a sec... three secret service agents just called me (conference call) and said Cheney wasn't drunk, he was stoned. Karl Rove slipped him a mickey so he'd do something stupid and distract us from the X scandal. All the booze he drank was a misguided attempt to dilute the drugs in his system. Rove also paid Whittington to jump in front of the shotgun blast -- Whittington, with his long hunting experience, would have the expertise to catch just enough of the blast to look creepy on TV without dying. Pollyusa, Mr. Blue's article is about TIA, not the warrantless wiretaps in the news lately. He conflating the two to increase his percieved credibility.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#30)
    by Sailor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 01:33:06 PM EST
    skeptical, yes, but it isn't unverifiable. A prosecutor can compel the SS to answer questions about their charges ... like clinton's were forced to. the fact is that cheney admitted he drank, shot a man in the face and refused to be interviewed by cops until about 18 hours later. Anyone else in the country would have had a lot of 'splainin' to do under those circumstances.

    Re: Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? (none / 0) (#31)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 02:08:38 PM EST
    Roy, I don't think so. The CHB article is mostly about the TIA, but he says "in addition" when starts talking about the FSA spy story. He also states that Bush signed an executive order and he mentions the NSA only in this part of his article. This is the only paragraph in the article that refers to overseas communications.
    In addition, the super-secret National Security Agency, under an executive order signed by President Bush not long after September 11, 2001, began monitoring phone conversations and emails of American citizens even though the agency's charter limits their activities to overseas communications.
    Looks to me like he had the story.

    Cheney Accident Becomes Cheney Scandal? | 29 comments (29 topical)