DC Bureau - Investigative Journalism, Environmental News, and National Security Stories That Matter

There is little that can be added to the bizarre story of Dick Cheney shooting a hunting buddy in his face and heart. His interest in killing tiny birds may reinforce the Vice-President’s image as a pro-hunting American. But the most interesting thing he told Brit Hume in Hume’s kid-gloves Fox TV interview is that that fateful Saturday afternoon was one of the worst days in the Vice President’s rather successful life.

One cannot help but think of 9/11 as a pretty bad day. Or that for the thousands of wounded and killed in Iraq there are a whole bunch of pretty bad days. I wonder what a young man or woman, risking it all on the front line in Iraq, Africa or Afghanistan thought about this out of touch old man describing an accident on a rich man’s outing as one of the worst days of his life.

Had I been Cheney it would have been the day I found out I sent young men and women to die to stop WMD’s that never existed. I think for me it would have been the day I became so married to my wrong intelligence that I would not back down and still allowed Americans to die for my mistake. My colleagues in the media continue to beat Cheney up for the wrong reasons. Anyone can kill someone or injure someone in an accident. But when you do it out of pride and the policy is deliberate that is something else.