After firing at pal, Cheney under fire

Washington: After firing at his fellow hunter, a Texas lawyer, last weekend while quail-hunting on a ranch near Corpus Christi in Texas, US Vice-President Dick Cheney himself has now come under fire in the blogosphere, in TV talk shows and in political domain.

Cheney shot Austin lawyer Harry Whittington in the face and chest from his shotgun when he was firing at birds without knowing where his hunting companion was.

Within hours, comedians and Left-leaning politicians opened fire on Cheney, sparking enormous chatter in the blog space.

The incident also prompted quips from late-night television hosts such as Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Craig Ferguson.

The jokes offended or tickled audiences, depending on their political beliefs and skittered around the web on Tuesday.

- "He is a lawyer and he got shot in the face. But he's a lawyer, he can use his other face. He'll be all right," Ferguson said.

- "You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down, because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, `If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.' "

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- "The big scandal apparently is that they didn't release the news for 18 hours. I don't think that's a scandal at all. I'm quite pleased about that. Finally there's a secret the vice president's office can keep."

- "Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past."

On the 'Late Show', David Letterman tied the shooting to another one of the administration's past controversies to poke fun at Cheney.

— "Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It's Dick Cheney."

— "But here is the sad part — before the trip, Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armour."

— "We can't get (Osama) bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."

— "The guy who got gunned down, he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he's fine. He took a little in the wallet."

There was also an instant controversy over the Vice-President's expired hunting license and his failure to speak with police until 18 hours after the incident.

In the blogosphere, the tone of attack turned gloomier when word came that a piece of bird shot circulated to Whittington's heart, causing a minor heart attack.

There was also speculation about whether the Vice-President had been drinking, an accusation Cheney denied.

At 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno', Leno was in his best.

— "Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, DC, Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear.

— "That's the big story over the weekend. Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 per cent."

— "I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, `Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?' "

— "Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine's Day. It's the new Dick Cheney cologne. It's called Duck!"

The Washington Post reported that both the Kenedy County, Texas, sheriff's department and the state have determined that alcohol did not appear to be a factor.

Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison lamented that the 'law and order administration' can justify hunting without proper licenses as well as eavesdropping on Americans without court orders.

"Anyone sense a pattern here?" Morrison wrote.

On Blogs for Bush, bloggers blamed the escalating controversy on the media.

- "I can only wonder how different the reaction would be to this incident had it been a Democrat vice president," wrote Matt Margolis.

On the same site, Mark Noonan pointed out that Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank wore an orange hunting jacket on Keith Olberman's MSNBC show as proof of a liberal bias in the media.

- "Imagine for a moment," Noonan wrote, "if a Republican commentator had worn a blue dress with a white stain back during Clinton's administration."