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Bush ordered Cheney to go public on shooting: Once again, we had it first

February 19, 2006 10:31 AM / Bush Leagues .
Time magazine reports today that President George W. Bush "had to lean" on Vice President Dick Cheney to get him to go public about his shooting of a friend on a hunting trip last weekend. What Time didn't tell you is that we reported that first here on Capitol Hill Blue.

Reports Nancy Gibbs and Mike Allen in the current issue of Time:

Bush had to lean on Cheney to talk publicly about the gun accident, but the real challenge for the two is how to get the Administration back on track.
 
The daily intelligence briefing at the White House is a secret, serious affair, conducted each morning for the President in the Oval Office by the experts in charge of knowing as much as possible about as much as possible. The President routinely asks what's going on in some of the darkest corners of the world. But last week George W. Bush's concerns included what was going on in an office down the hall, where Vice President Dick Cheney had been lying low since shooting his friend Harry Whittington in a late afternoon quail hunt in Texas over the weekend. Not just the communications pros and the commentariat but Bush too understood that Cheney needed to get out there and tell his story, but the Vice President was still resisting. Until Cheney said something, Bush couldn't talk to reporters either. There would be no other story, no other message than that the Vice President of the United States had accidentally shot a man and was refusing to talk about what had happened.
 
Time's story is in its weekly issue that will reach subscribers on Monday. But readers of Capitol Hill Blue knew the story already. CHB Publisher Doug Thompson, in his column on February 16, reported:
 
Cheney's hastily-arranged interview with the Bush-friendly Fox News Channel came only after an angry President Bush ordered his recalcitrant Vice President to try and undo the damage of four days of silence on the shooting that left 78-year-old Texas lawyer Harry Worthington hospitalized in intensive care after one of the shotgun pellets reached his heart.
 
Capitol Hill Blue routinely scoops the major news organizations on stories like this. Thompson also reported on February 16:
 
County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III was barbecuing in his back yard with his family at 5:30 p.m. Saturday when sheriff's Capt. Charles Kirk called to report "a possible hunting accident at Armstrong Ranch."

A few minutes later, a Secret Service agent called.

"He said the reason he was calling was to officially notify the sheriff's department that the vice president was involved in that shooting accident," Salinas said.

Kirk went to the Armstrong Ranch gate but was not allowed on the property. He called Salinas to report he was there with a U.S. Border Patrol agent who didn't know what was going on.

CBS News the next day reported that sheriff's deputies were not allowed on Armstrong ranch property and acted like it was a big scoop.

"This kind of thing happens all the time," Thompson said today. "We get the story and it shows up later in some other media and they always seem to forget we had it first. We had the NSA spying story a year ahead of the New York Times. As usual, we got it first and we got it right."

 


© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue

Comments

Figurehead Bush only does what President Rove tells or lets him do. Works for me. Whattsamatta you?

Posted by mr.ed at February 19, 2006 11:43 AM

How much can one say about a breath of fresh air or a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel? I guess that says it all other than the last pulsebeat of a free press or the dying ethical code of journalism.

Posted by dave at February 19, 2006 12:52 PM

Does anyone remember what a linotype machine clanking out better than 100 words per minute sounds like? That was when real newspapers were still in business.

Posted by dave at February 19, 2006 01:09 PM

Of course they are not going to report that you got it first, Doug, because then they would have to provide a link to your site. That is the LAST thing they want to do because then people would stop reading their fascist rags and start reading CHB and other alternative News sites.

Multiplied millions of Americans do not even know of the existence of alternative news organizations because of media suppression added to google's covert "manipulation" of search returns. There is absolutely NO chance of any real change being effected as long as the Mainstream Media has its way.

Posted by Laura Knight-Jadczyk at February 19, 2006 03:32 PM

Of course they are not going to report that you got it first, Doug, because then they would have to provide a link to your site. That is the LAST thing they want to do because then people would stop reading their fascist rags and start reading CHB and other alternative News sites.

Multiplied millions of Americans do not even know of the existence of alternative news organizations because of media suppression added to google's covert "manipulation" of search returns. There is absolutely NO chance of any real change being effected as long as the Mainstream Media has its way.

Posted by Laura Knight-Jadczyk at February 19, 2006 03:34 PM

28 guage is a woman's gun. The foolishness, stalls and cover-ups make sense if Lynne Cheney pulled the trigger.

Posted by American Passport at February 19, 2006 04:59 PM

It is very possible to believe, that VP Cheney will NEVER bounce from this one. Whittington now has to suffer continuously knowing Cheney made a fool out of the entire government.

The way we see it, every time the government gets caught in their own snare, more and more people begin to wake up to the reality of the fact, there is no such thing as an American government as there should have NEVER BEEN ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

All stones will be unturned. It is just a matter of "Time Speaking."

We truly feel bad for Whittington and his family. As they say, . . . Whittington was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, it is true to say that we shall all pay for our wrong doings in life. As no one is perfect, it is likely Whittington and VP Cheney has paid a part of their debt of injustice they have created upon others. Only God knows the amount of everyone's secrets and hidden skeletons.

Posted by truth at February 19, 2006 08:00 PM

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
-Samuel Adams

Posted by give me the truth at February 19, 2006 08:02 PM

If Bush were a introspective person, it might have been a moment of "there but for the grace of God etc." when his fellow drunk shot his friend; The status of a "dry drunk" and an active alcoholic in tandem at the White House truly is a frightening image. Maybe Cheney's due to join AA and join Bush on the wagon.

Posted by dot kos at February 20, 2006 12:35 PM

DOES ONE ACTUALLY KNOW HOW DECEITFUL AND CRUEL A FORM OF GOVERNMENT CAN BE?

Governments do everything for 'experimental purposes', correct? So let's try this one on for size, . . .

Hang onto your hats’ folks, it is getting windy out there, . . .

Let's just imagine, . . . Based on the fact that governments acknowledge that there will always be casualties in the event of a war, that they will go as far as using an elderly victim of a hunting incident for the sole purpose of testing an opponent’s reaction?

Question: Who represents themselves being the leading opponent to the body of any form of government?
Answer: The people.

Question: In the war between the people and its government, how are each squads reacting toward each other?
Answer: As one stands in force, the other stands in defense.

Question: Which one of the two is standing in the position of force, as the other remains in the position of defense?
Answer: The one who finds it necessary, to experiment with life and death, is always found in the line of defense.

Analysis to conclusion: The one in force is with a clear focus, as the one in defense is with rambling confusion.

Posted by Faith is in the house at February 20, 2006 04:52 PM

America has too many poor followers, and not enough valuable leaders! That is America's downfall!

Has anyone questioned the reasoning to why we war with other countries? (Set apart from the fact it enhances man's economy).

To honestly think about it, . . . War kills off a generation of good people. War has the capacity to "skip a track of good people," as it then creates the remaining few, to become so ill (physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally), they are more often than not, useless onto themselves and others, to do any world of good.


Until thought goes into why man chooses to war, rather than getting beyond the obstacles of differences, . . . man will NEVER be given the blessing of knowing how to bring resolve and peace.

So everyone can chat away, . . . all the way to Kalamazoo, . . . but the answers will NEVER be given, until we search the soul of man's intentions, and correct what is found to be wrong!

Posted by soul searching at February 20, 2006 05:46 PM

Yes, you got it right and first, and that's why I stop by here everyday. I miss Thompson and I hope he comes back, but I can understand how this miasma of delusions, spin, and lies can destroy anyone.

In any event, I find it hard to believe Bush can order Cheney to do anything, or for that matter wants to. Bush is too disconnected and feckless to care. Rover is another matter. If Bush was really in charge, which he isn't, he would have ordered Cheney into the Oval Office and given him the straight dope, but hey, let's be serious.

At some point they will run out of feet to shoot, or should I say faces.

Posted by Richard Knabel at February 20, 2006 06:57 PM

Richard, . . . Who is Thompson?

Posted by soul searching at February 21, 2006 02:32 PM

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