I’ve heard a number of comments in blogs and on talk radio still finding issue with Cheney’s interview with Fox News yesterday. I thought I’d chime in with my thoughts.
If Cheney had done this interview Saturday evening, this would have been primarily just a 15 minute story, aside from the natterings of conspiracy-theorists and scandal-mongers.
The first lesson in making mistakes is to come clean about the error, take your licks, fix the mess, and then move on in such a way that the mistake is unlikely to reoccur. Cheney at least on the surface seems to be doing so. It’s time to move on.
I’m not saying that the American public should forget this incident. This administration has an unfortunate history of refusing to admit mistakes, and being far more opaque than an appropriately checked-and-balanced republic should be. If folks in the White House have finally learned that they need to reform their stance, I welcome it.
Of course, if the administration continues its stance of inerrancy and infallibility…well then I won’t object to dusting off this past weekend’s events as a reminder to Joe Average of what that can translate to.
I’ve heard and read a number of little gripes about this story. Yes, Cheney was fielding soft ball questions, rather than having the press conference some would have liked. Considering how incredibly rabid the press corps can be, I can’t say that I blame him. I’ve heard others speculating over alcohol being a significant factor in the accident, or challenging the interactions with local law enforcement. While those parts of the story may have an odd odor, they aren’t beyond the realm of plausibility, and I doubt that it is possible for those story-elements to be conclusively disproven.
Bottom-line: Stick a fork in it folks, it’s done. Don’t forget about it, but it’s not worth the energy to keep torching this point.
Although…there is one other point I should toss into this post. Yesterday, I had to run out at lunchtime to do an errand. While in the car, I caught a little bit of Rush Limbaugh. He was at the time all worked up over Hillary Clinton criticizing the blanket of secrecy being wrapped around Cheney when she is accused of having used that same blanket with Travelgate and some of the back-story behind her proposed health plan.
On that point, I’ve got to say: Dude, get a life! Yes, Hillary Clinton’s statements seem somewhat hypocritical…but that doesn’t mean she has a point. The points she raised are no more or less valid because she may be guilty of them too. “You did it too” isn’t a viable defense; “it” isn’t necessarily any less wrong because of the guilt of the accuser.