Cheney ends silence, but questions remain about the shooting

PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Dick Cheney, in his sitdown with Fox News' Brit Hume, sought to convey two messages about his hunting accident: He's taking the blame, and he feels bad about it.

But he still thinks the news about a U.S. vice president pumping birdshot into a 78-year-old lawyer didn't warrant speedy disclosure to the public ("I was there on a private weekend with friends on a private ranch"). And he volunteered no information about a slew of nagging mysteries:

Cheney said in the Wednesday interview that "the White House was notified" about the shooting Saturday night. But who exactly informed White House chief of staff Andrew Card about the shooting, without telling Card who the shooter was? Did Card not ask who it was? Shortly thereafter, according to the White House, Card told President Bush that a shooting had occurred but said nothing to Bush about a shooter. Did Bush not ask who it was?

Bush strategist Karl Rove discussed the shooting with ranch owner Katharine Armstrong about 8 p.m. and was told Cheney was the shooter. But did Rove, or anyone else at the White House, suggest that speedy disclosure might be preferred? Press secretary Scott McClellan speedily disclosed Bush's bike collision with a cop during an economic summit in Scotland last year.

Armstrong has told The Associated Press that after victim Harry Whittington was taken to the hospital, the hunting party sat down to dinner at the ranch yet never discussed public disclosure.

Given that virtually all the diners were veteran Republicans with decades of experience in party politics and that Cheney had become the first vice president since Aaron Burr to shoot a man, in 1804, was that the right response?

Cheney said Wednesday that Armstrong was the best person to deal with the media because "she'd seen the whole thing." But how dependable is a witness who, according to reports, was sitting in a vehicle 100 yards away?

The distance may be important: Armstrong also has said that when she saw Cheney's security people running toward the scene, she thought Cheney had suffered "a heart problem," not that someone had been shot. If she was close enough to witness the incident, wouldn't she have known Whittington was the person in distress?

When did Cheney first speak to local authorities? The New York Times was told that a deputy sheriff interviewed Cheney on Saturday night. The Associated Press was told a deputy sheriff showed up at the ranch that night, only to be turned away after learning that Cheney would be available Sunday.

If Cheney is taking full responsibility for the shooting, why did several people at the scene — Armstrong and Ambassador Pamela Willeford — put out early word that Whittington was at fault? If Cheney believed he deserved the blame, what did those women see that led them to conclude otherwise?

As many Republicans and former Bush aides have indicated in recent days, various mysteries in this case might have been dispelled quickly if Cheney had orchestrated prompt disclosure rather than allowed information to dribble out over a period of days. As the conservative National Review editorialized online Wednesday, "It was a mistake not to alert the national press of the incident immediately."

Cheney said Wednesday that a news blackout was desirable until there was certainty about Whittington's health, "that everything was probably going to be OK."

Hume, often friendly to the administration, didn't buy it: "But there were some things you knew. I mean, you knew the man had been shot, you knew he was injured, you knew he was in the hospital, you knew you'd shot him."

Cheney wouldn't budge. And, his stance has put him at odds with the president, at least when protected species are involved.

Bush, in his autobiography, recalled a 1994 hunting incident in which he killed a killdeer, a protected bird. He put out the news right away, and wrote that, in politics, "people watch the way you handle things; they get a feeling they like and trust you, or they don't."

But Thursday, Bush said the vice president had handled the matter "just fine" and had given a "powerful explanation."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.