The Columnist Manifesto

Now that millionaire lawyer Harry Whittington has had a heart attack as a result of going quail hungting with Dick Cheney, all humor on the subject is officially in poor taste. But as a "bad behavior at funerals liberal" I have to make the following observations.

The steady and reliable White House press secretary Scott McClellan had this insight: "I think you can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job."

How might "these issues" (those thorny "the Vice President just shot a guy -- no, I mean literally" issues) be better handled?

For starters, it was kind of weird the way everyone involved, including Whittingon's family members, seemed determined to protect Cheney by downplaying the seriousness of the injury. Weirdest of all was the way Cheney tried to rely on the hunting grounds' property manager, Katherine Armstrong, for spin control in the first 48 hours after the shooting. Cheney's spokespeople actually referred key questions to this woman, who seemed determined to make it seem like getting shot by a fellow hunter was kind of cute and funny: Whitington, she said more than once, was merely "peppered" by Cheney's buckshot, which she described as "itty bitty pellets."

One of which has now worked its way to Whittington's heart, causing the heart attack.

This this strange, and possibly tragic, event is starting to sound -- right down to McClellan's "it could have been handled better" -- more and more like the old morbid joke, "the cat is on the roof." Only replace "is on the roof" with "went hunting with Dick Cheney."