Firing Questions at the Vice President
JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW" HOST": Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt at a political supporter's ranch, making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton! Hamilton! Alexander Hamilton, of course, was shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington was mistaken for a bird!</s>VERJEE: Late night comics are having a field day with that hunting accident involving the vice president. The jokes really being made easier because the victim, Harry Whittington, is recovering quickly and in stable condition, but it is also drawing sharp criticism. It happened on Saturday, but Cheney's office didn't disclose it until the next afternoon, and that was after the family who owned the ranch told a Corpus Christi newspaper about it. Joining us now from Washington to talk a little bit about the fallout is Mike Allen of "Time" magazine. Mike, good to have you.</s>MIKE ALLEN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Happy valentine's day, Zain.</s>VERJEE: Thank you. And you, too. Why did take so long for the White House to come out with this?</s>ALLEN: Well, Zain, it was the vice president decided this should be announced through the local paper the next day, rather than the systems that are in place for notifying White House press corps when something occurs.</s>VERJEE: Why?</s>ALLEN: The White House staff back here in D.C. was pushing to push the information out. It was obvious to them what sun folding this week, which it was going to be a much bigger, much longer running story if it looked like a cover-up or incompetent story, as opposed to a shooting that turned out to be kind of minor. God kept a strong hand on Mr. Whittington. He's going to be fine. Mr. Whittington is a Republican close to this White House. He wasn't going to complain. I think, Zain, when we saw the wire story Sunday afternoon, we knew the late night comics would be at it for a few days, and that might be it. Instead, there's still no complete chronology. The president has not talked about it on camera. The vice president who was at the White House yesterday has not talked about it on camera. I saw that photo in "The New York Times" of the vice president going in the side door of the White House. It looked like undercover photo. That's not the message he wants to be sending now. And of course, Zain, there's a huge opportunity cost to this for the president's agenda. Yesterday, the president's Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend gave a very important speech about national preparedness, an issue that actually does matter. The White House put out a very fascinating fact annual economic report with forecast for the year ahead talking about the importance of a trained workforce, but there wasn't a lot of news time for those.</s>VERJEE: What does this do to the vice president's image? I mean, the public already perceives him as secretive, as tight-lipped, he hates the media. What does it do to the public perception?</s>ALLEN: Well, of course, the vice president has an opportunity to come out here and maybe explain his thinking, and give some insight as to why he did this. Nobody expects the vice president to be an expert in press relations. He's vice president. That's why he has staff who does that, and that's why you need to defer to those people. We all have different gifts. But instead, he set up this plan and insisted on sticking to it. I think it also is going to raise questions about the structure of this White House, and whether having the vice president's office as such an autonomous unit is always helpful. And of course, Zain -- excuse me, I'm sorry. Go ahead.</s>VERJEE: Scott McClellan had a pretty rough time with reporters yesterday. I want to just take a listen to one of the exchanges.</s>QUESTION: You got a situation room here. You got people who monitor stuff. It's impossible to find out -- I mean, the vice president knew immediately, oh, no, I shot somebody accidentally, and it takes 22 hours...</s>MCCLELLAN: You know what his first reaction was? His first reaction was go to Mr. Whittington and get his team in there to provide him medical care.</s>QUESTION: Why is it, it took so long for the president, for you, for anybody else to know that the vice president accidentally shot somebody?</s>VERJEE: What more problems does this create for the White House? I mean, it's dealing with, you know, the Jack Abramoff scandal, with the CIA leak, and so many other issues. What does this do?</s>ALLEN: Well, Zain, this is ironic, because this is a president who insists on perfection in the mechanics of his White House. He has</s>VERJEE: Perhaps for Valentine's Day. Mike Allen, thank you so much for joining us on AMERICAN MORNING. Later this hour, our old friend Andy Borowitz will stop by and take his best humorous shot at the vice president -- Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: Coming up, will it be miller time in Turin? Bad boy skier Bode Miller back on the Olympic slopes today. We have a live preview for us. And you might want to save those important e-mails. One company has to shell out $15 million for hitting the delete key. Andy "Minding Your Business" on that one. Stay with us.