Hey Man Nice Shot

Okay, how many blogs are using that as a title today?

At first, I wasn't going to take the easy way out, wasn't going to unload the snark like The Dick unloaded the shot, but then I got to thinking:

about all the cheap-ass cigar jokes;
about all the Whitewater snark;
about the 'Hillary is a Lesbian' shtick;
about the Clinton Drug Murders videotape;
about the 'Chelsea as White House Dog' slime;

So obviously this is fair game.

So:

So is this a result of the tough time the misadminstration is having, a sign of the pressure Fitzgerald is putting on Libby? Or just Darth blowing off a little steam?

Do ya think Cheney gave him a five second head start?

Or is this maybe a message to the Republican rank and file to get in line. I can see that. “ Come on, buddy, I gotta show those fuckin legislators who holds the whip hand. Come on, Whittington, take one for the team. It won't hurt much, ya pussy.”

“Not in the face! Not in the Face!” BLAM!! “...you bastard...”

UPDATED (As August said, FIELD DAY!):

The Rude Pundit contemplates Cheney contemplating his soul contemplating the injured man.

Skippy goes for the difficulty factor, skipping the easy jokes.

Driftglass gets his hand on the transcript...

Shakespeare's sister channels the Aerosmith song...

Daily Pepper (whose site name certainly takes on a new facet of meaning) links headlines...

And Wolcott nails the headline, effortlessly: Vice President Elmer Fudd. Snerk!


UPDATE to the UPDATE:

Some good commentary over at firedoglake.

They reiterate a couple of points I'd like to emphasize:

FIRST: in the case of a hunting accident, THE SHOOTER IS AT FAULT. safely operating your weapon, especially in a hunting party, is paramount and to be expected. This is the rhetoric we've been hearing all these years from the NRA, that trained hunters are safe hunters, and I think they're basically right. The story that has been floated is ridiculous and even to a non-hunter like me, seems to be the height of a bad idea. Wheeling around with a cocked weapon at head height to track a (very) low flying bird? The height of scandalous lack of concern for your fellow hunters, not to mention the hunting dogs.

SECOND: They are trying, perhaps not surprisingly, to cover up and minimize the incident. The experienced hunters in the comments point out that the type and severity of the wounds are inconsistent with the story; that the reporting of the story and, in fact, the injury was delayed for quite some time; and that the victim was to blame.

THIRD: Cheney, being the warm lovable human being we've come to know and loathe, has a thing for shooting guns and killing things. Not get all Freudian on his ass, but hey, projection much?

FOURTH: Shooting pen-raised birds in the manner described isn't hunting, it's killing. Cheney is a sick, twisted mutherfucker who needs a long period of intensive treatment, not a roomful of weapons or, more importantly, to run the country. Given this, I'd say the rush to war in Iraq was more a function of his bloodlust than any political or security needs. He cowardly refused to actually fight in a war, but likes killing stuff. Tell me I'm wrong.

FIFTH: (quoting one of the comments directly) And finally, only a drunk, an asshole or a drunk asshole would ever shoot their partner or their dog.