With Cheney, rules simply don't apply

I'm waiting to hear from my NRA buddies to comment about one of their
national heroes, Vice President Dick Cheney.

What I particularly want to hear is their take on the contention from
members of the vice president's hunting party that Harry Whittington,
the 78-year-old lawyer shot by Cheney, was at fault because he didn't
let anyone know where he was.

"If that's the case, this will set hunting rules back 50 years," Rich
Rygh, our chief photographer and a veteran hunter, insisted at one of
our news meetings the other morning. "Anyone who knows about hunting
knows it's the responsibility of the person with the gun to know
what's out there before shooting."

Indeed, the National Rifle Association makes that quite clear in its
famous gun safety rules, which are distributed to all members and used
in cl***** for young people.

"Know your target and what is beyond," the rule book states and then
goes on:

"Be absolutely sure you have identified your target beyond any doubt.
Equally im****tant, be aware of the area beyond your target. This means
observing your prospective area of fire before you shoot. Never fire
in a direction in which there are people or any other potential for
mishap. Think first. Shoot second."

It seems to me that since there were hunters, lobbyists, Secret
Service agents and multitudes of hangers-on in the vicinity of our
vice president, he didn't follow that NRA rule to the hilt.

But surely we couldn't expect Dick Cheney, who has been lying to us
about Iraq for three years now, to take responsibility for the
accident. Instead, he and his host at the Texas ranch where the hunt
took place waited nearly a full day before telling anyone about the
incident to, apparently, get their stories straight.

And, of course, the accident gave us some more insight into our vice
president's social habits. His host is a lobbyist for companies that
have Iraqi contracts. If he's not on a hunt with Supreme Court
justices like Antonin Scalia on the eve of an im****tant court decision
involving the vice president, he's schmoozing with folks looking for
favors.

My friend Bob Hansen, reminded by the Cheney accident of a similar one
involving former Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight right here in
Wisconsin, called to suggest we hold a readers' contest that includes
a first prize of a hunting trip with Cheney and Knight.

Not a bad idea, but that ought to be the last prize.

Dave Zweifel

Source: The Capital Times (Madison, WI)
http://tinyurl.com/dr35f