She Can't Be Serious

If anyone saw the Daily Show on Monday night, you saw how much fun they had with Cheney's "peppering" of Harry Whittington. Nothing was better than watching Ed Helms and Rob Cordry repeat ad infintum "Vice President Dick Cheney shot a seventy year old man in the face after mistaking him for a small bird."

Very funny.

But now Garance Franke-Ruta of TAPPED takes the bit a wee too far, insinuating that Dick Cheney's shooting of the man was anything other than a mistake.

Mark my words: Dick Cheney is going to be a victim of the CSI effect unless he comes clean, pronto. Thanks to CSI, we are all forensic scientists now, and, once you start asking forensic questions, there’s no end. I mean, has anyone examined the scene of the accident? Of course Cheney has not been charged with any crime, so there's no legal basis for a forensic examination, and the Armstrongs are under no obligation to let anyone onto their property. And yet...I can't help wanting to know all about pellet trajectories, and where the rest of the shot landed (what percent of the load went into Whittington?), and where exactly Cheney was standing, and where Wittington fell, and then maybe have a team of forensic scientists re-draw the pellet trajectories with tape, or maybe laser pointers. How loud do you have to shout to be heard from 90 feet away, anyway? How much clothing can a pellet penetrate at 90 feet? How much force does it take to lodge a pellet near a man's heart and how close to him do you have to be to do it? The Corpus Christi Caller-Times was totally on to something with their re-enactment: It is these forensic questions that will turn the Cheney shooting incident into news-stand and ratings heaven.

I know I'll watch.

How smug? I'm as deeply uncomfortable with Dick Cheney as anyone else that cares about transparency in government and fair business dealings, but com'on, whipping up the CSI Effect to say this was anything else than a tragedy. Are our spines that crooked, that we, the liberal left, is hoping he comes under prosecution for a mistake?

I think it's safe to say Dick Cheney is no Alexander Hamilton and that this "peppering" was a mistake.