The Dark Lord Exposes His True Colors

For most mere mortals, even those holding high office, a hunting accident would provoke a reaction where the injured party gets medical attention, and the shooter cooperates fully with authorities as they look into the accident. Most people, especially if they shot someone who is allegedly a friend, would be distraught over the accident and willing to do whatever it took to aid an investigation and help out the injured party.

Not so with our Vice President, the Dark Lord, Dick Cheney. He shoots a friend of his in the face and chest with buckshot while hunting farm-raised quail that are specially released for him to kill (which isn't really sporting if you ask me). He does direct his medical team (the one that follows him everywhere in case that bad heart of his decides to stop) to take care of the friend. The friend is taken to a hospital, and the police are called.

Here is where it takes a turn for the bizarre, as the Dark Lord exposes his inner darkness for all to see. Cheney, as Vice President of the United States, thinks this hunting accident should be kept quiet until everyone's story is straight. To accomplish this, he instructs the Secret Service to bar the police who come to question him about the accident. He has his people tell his hostess what she saw and didn't see. Only when everything is set does he "allow" her to leak the story to a local paper.

By now, the accident is getting to be almost a day old. He didn't even tell the White House what had happened. The whole thing smells of a bizarre coverup, but why? Surely Cheney didn't shoot this guy on purpose. He couldn't be THAT evil, could he? It would be too wreckless to shoot a man in cold blood with witnesses from your Secret Service and medical details. Cheney's not that stupid.

I think the whole thing was an accident, but Cheney's behavior following the incident makes me scratch my head. What could he possibly have been thinking when he approached the aftermath of this accident? He makes it look like he has something to hide. I know the man is used to lying and covering up in his day job, but there's no reason for lies and coverups in an accident like this.

The press has suddenly decided to show some fortitude and hold Cheney's feet to the fire over this episode. It's a shame they didn't have this kind of skepticism when Cheney and Bush led to us to war with Iraq. It's a shame that it's taken over 5 years for the press to realize that they should question Cheney at all about the things he says and does.

I do hope that Cheney's friend does survive. He apparently had a heart attack after a pellet went into his heart yesterday, and he has plenty of buckshot left in his body. There is a small part of me, though, that wonders what would happen to the Dark Lord if the friend dies. The last time we had a Vice President shoot someone, it was Aaron Burr and his duel with Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton died, and Burr didn't end up too well in the end himself. Will it be the same with the Dark Lord?