\jeff{krimmel}

Cheney Shoots Some Dude

You read it correctly. Vice President Cheney accidentally shot a man with whom he was hunting in Texas on Saturday. The victim, Harry Whittington, is in intensive care at a Corpus Christi hospital but is reported to be doing well.

Now, I can already see at least a dozen Saturday Night Live sketches that could potentially result from this. Anything ranging from why the war in Iraq is going the way it is to what would have happened if the guy wasn’t a campaign contributor would be fair game. And don’t you know the political cartoonists will have a fun time with this one.

I am so glad, on so many levels, that Mr. Whittington survived. I have to admit, though, that one of those reasons is because this story is so much funnier this way. If the poor guy had died, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable laughing about it, but this way I have no remorse.

And what do you think the second thought Dick Cheney must have had was? Obviously the first one is some variant of, “Oh my God, did I just shoot that guy?” But, you know a close second was, “I’m toast. I will see no end to this ridicule.” And he’s probably right. Because it’s difficult to make fun of someone for having a lot of heart problems, but it’s really easy to make fun of them for accidentally shooting people (as long as those people survive and recover).