You could kill me now and I wouldn't blame you if you do, but you ought to thank me before you die for the gravel in your gut and the spit in your eye, cause I'm the sonofabitch that named you Sue
Intrade.com is getting no takers for either its Cheney to resign by June 30 or its Cheney to resign by December 31 futures. The ask price for the June 30 future is up slightly, on no volume.
Meanwhile, Doug Ireland comes up with a battery of fishy points to suggest Cheney was hunting after hours and without a license, and that even if he wasn't doing that, Cheney's a low-down, dirty, road-huntin' dawg.
White House reporter Somebody in an online chat tries to stump Scott McClellan Washington Post White House reporter Peter Baker with an Aaron Burr trivia question. McClellan Baker gets it right, and that'll teach me to read articles more carefully.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times has details of the accident (pinning the blame on victim Harry Whittington). Registration required.
Whittington's an eminent domain hero.
Foreign press has more fun with the story than U.S. press.
Al Franken makes a pretty funny joke about the shooting. A shill named Noel Sheppard not only doesn't get the joke, but doesn't even recognize a line from Johnny Cash's second or third most famous song—and that's truly un-American.
Meanwhile, commentators who had hissy fits * when the MSM spent less than three hours erroneously reporting that a group of West Virginia miners had been found alive are apparently untroubled by the 18 hours it took the Administration (or more accurately, the Caller-Times) to get this story out. Reason commenter Vanya already sees how the story's going to shape up:
1. Administration official does something stupid and incompetent, but, in the big picture, minor and not likely to upset Administration supporters.
2. Rather than admit any mistake, Administration jumps into CYA mode as soon as story leaks.
3. Liberal press and bloggers, seeing Administration in CYA mode, go into attack mode and blow up minor affair into "big deal."
4. Conversative press and bloggers accuse liberal press and bloggers of overreacting and acting like irresponsible "Bush haters"
5. General public loses interest, liberal press/blogger reputation for hysteria further cemented in mainstream mind.
* Update: John "Balloon Juice" Cole writes in to say that a) he didn't have a hissy fit, b) he does think the Cheney reporting delay is a big deal, and c:
Additionally, I think there is a great difference between running with unconfirmed reports of the rescue of miners underground in which details are murky at best, and failing to report an accidental shooting involving the second most powerful man in the world, particularly when the details were clear.
