Whittington, Tanned, Rested, And Ready…

…is making a statement right now. Looking like a hundred dollars at least. If you've got cable, check it out.

Video available here.

The most interesting comment was Whittington's apology to Cheney. But at this point, since he looked great, this story is pretty much over except as a permanent entry in the voluminous annals of vice-presidential embarrassment.

If you're interested in remaining unanswered questions, here's a non-comprehensive list. Plus a rant touching on the discrepancies between Cheney's "one beer" comment and Whittington's claim in the police report that no alcohol was served on the hunting trip.

The real story of Dick Whittington, on the other hand, is readily available.

After a weeklong bump into the double digits, the Dick Cheney June 30 retirement futures at intrade.com have plummeted; they're now below where they were before the shooting. The December futures are still up slightly, but losing ground fast. So the real question in this "accidental" shooting is cui bono?

I dissected the Cheney-as-puppet-master theme back when the Cheney retirement rumor was just a glimmer on one of Condi's dominatrix boots.