VP = Very Private (Cheney)

VP, as we so well know, stands for VERY PRIVATE.

Closed doors, keep out, off limits, no comment.

But do these guys need a bumper sticker stuck on their limosines? It's not the crime, it's the time... (of the DELAY). As James Carville might say, "It's the delay, stupid." Even for a smoke screen kinda guy, a 24 hour delay in acknowledging even an accidental shooting smells of cover up.

No doubt about it, these guys take the "public" and the "service" out of public service. As "public servants," they're supposed to have accepted not only the "public eye" but the public's right to know. Of course, actually LIKING the public, the People, as in "We, the People," would really help. The opposite seems to be true, as in how easily we can imagine a smurky Mr. Cheney snidely saying, "they don't know what's good for them. We won't show them, we'll just give it to them."

So, Mr. Very Private, why the delay? Not, I say, to "get all the facts" or even to "get the facts right" but to spin the facts if not can them. Who's gonna fall for 'needing all the facts' first? What story waits for "all the facts"?

Tim Grieve reports in the War Room at Salon that Mary Matalin got up early Monday morning to put in a good word for her nefarious boss. As Grieve said, "No less of an authority than Mary Matalin says that Vice President Dick Cheney was in the right when he unloaded his shotgun on a 78-year-old hunting companion Saturday."

Matalin was reported as saying, "He felt badly, obviously.... On the other hand, he was not careless or incautious ... He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do."

To which Grieve notably retorts: "Would that she could say that about the vice president more generally."

What a guy, our stiff upper lipped Commander Behind the Curtain.

Interesting that neither VP "Duck, It's Dick!" Cheney nor the White House issued any announcement of the VP's accidentally shooting a hunting companion for a whole day - until, in fact, well after the story broke in the Corpus Christi newspaper.

Why? Because Dick Cheney is the tail that wags the dog. In the New World Order of Bush, that's the way it is, especially when blood is spilled.

But today, it's even more curious that the talking heads on TV are chitchatting about how Dave and Jay will have a field day with this little piece of news "for a week!"

Yep, a notorious and telling little incident, trivialized before the joke writers have even had downed their coffee and Cokes to confab on the conning VP's buckshot bust - and figured out how to make it funny. 'Oh, goodie, we can't wait to see what sort of hay they'll make from this one.'

Meanwhile, we have to wonder how this story might have emerged if the victim's wounds had not required a hospital stay and surgery.


UPDATE: Scott McClellan is on TV right now, squirming over questions of THE DELAY and 'what is the protocol for informing the press?' McClellan is taking a beating right now. "Why is it that it took so long...?" McClellen can only repeat himself by blowing another puff of smoke.

Meanwhile, the gracious (and apparently honest) owner of the ranch might be in trouble with the White House, as it was she who called the Corpus Christi paper to report the accident. Cheney has reportedly been hunting at this ranch for years, but I'll bet this VP doesn't ever go hunting there again. Of course, as far as safety goes, Cheney is a loaded gun himself, even when he's not firing one.