Cheney shooting accident has political echoes

The doctors said Whittington did not experience classic symptoms of a heart attack, but they estimate that he probably had a minor or "silent" one around 6:30 a.m. CT. They said they decided to treat the situation “conservatively” rather than conduct surgery to remove the pellet. They said he could live a healthy life with it left in place.

Asked whether the pellet could move further into the heart and become fatal, hospital officials said that was a hypothetical question they could not answer. But they said they are extremely optimistic that he will recover.

Controversy swirled around the incident almost as soon as national reporters got wind of it because more than 20 hours elapsed before any public word about it, which then came via a call from ranch owner Armstrong to a local newspaper in Corpus Christi, reportedly with Cheney's consent. Also, it wasn't until the morning after the shooting that Cheney and members of his party were interviewed by local law enforcement.

Bush quickly learned about shooting
President Bush was told about Cheney’s involvement in the accident shortly before 8 p.m. ET Saturday — about 90 minutes after it occurred — but the White House did not disclose the accident until Sunday afternoon, and then only in response to press questions.

Facing a press corps upset that news had been withheld, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, “If you want to continue to spend time on that, that’s fine. ... We’re moving on to the priorities of the American people. That’s where our focus is.”

The shooting presents a new problem for the White House as it seeks to repair damaged credibility in a midterm election year in which continued GOP control of Congress hangs in the balance.

Cheney, 65, whose “favorable” rating was just 24 percent in a recent CBS-New York Times poll, has found himself in other storms swirling around the Bush presidency.

NBC VIDEO Reporters press Feb. 13: Heated exchanges ensued at a White House press briefing Monday over the Cheney shooting. Nightly News

His strong insistence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction helped build the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He also has played the role of point man in the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program in the war on terror.

And, more recently, his indicted former chief of staff — I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby — testified to a grand jury about being authorized to disclose classified information to the press in the CIA leak case “by his superiors,” according to court documents. Democrats have demanded to know whether Cheney was one of those superiors.

“These things become symptoms of a broader disquiet with Cheney,” said Paul C. Light, professor of public service at New York University.

'Such an anger toward Cheney'
Among moderate and liberal Americans, “there is such an anger toward Cheney,” Light said. “There are people who believed he pulled the trigger figuratively on a lot of things. Vice presidents can get away with hitting people with golf balls, but they can’t get away with shooting people with shotguns.”

Cheney succeeded in avoiding reporters during a visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for meetings with lawmakers.

The terse, unsigned statement issued by Cheney's office said the vice president had phoned Whittington from the White House.

Whittington’s “spirits were good, but obviously his situation deserves the careful monitoring that his doctors are providing,” the statement said.

Unlike the president, who is accompanied by a news media pool whenever he travels in public, Cheney repeatedly makes unannounced trips around town and around the country — as he did with his weekend hunting excursion in south Texas, and again on his trip to the Capitol on Tuesday.

Cheney remains popular with the GOP conservative base. Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster and strategist, said that all vice presidents have to overcome the fact that “you never get the benefit of the doubt for the good things you do, and never any lack of blame for the bad things.”

He said he expects the controversy to pass, especially if Whittington makes a full recovery.
If the shooting victim’s condition worsens, that could increase the seriousness of the incident, and bring more scrutiny to bear on what exactly happened on the private Texas ranch.

“But if somehow the president considers Cheney gets to be a liability, I think that getting rid of him or encouraging him to step down would cause problems for the Republicans with their base,” said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist.

“And Cheney is like a member of the Bush family. The president would no sooner push Cheney overboard than he would Jeb,” Baker said, referring to Bush brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida.

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