It's not US Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting mishap that has Republicans worried. It's his other scandal -- the CIA leak case and the threat it poses to the embattled vice president.
Republican activists say the accidental shooting of Cheney's friend is the talk of mainstream America and has made the vice president the butt of jokes. But they do not expect political fallout from the shooting or the clumsy way in which it was disclosed.
"It's hard to believe that anybody can make Dick Cheney a sympathetic figure," said Republican Congressman Tom Cole. "That's what the media has done."
Republicans say they are pleasantly surprised that the intense media coverage of the hunting accident has shifted attention from the case of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff. Libby is accused of misleading investigators about who leaked the identify of a CIA official.
In documents released two weeks ago, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said he understood that Libby's superiors authorized him to disclose to the media details of a secret report that is central to the investigation.
What does Cheney know?
"It's nothing I can talk about," he said in a television interview on Wednesday. "I may well be called as a witness at some point in the case and it's, therefore, inappropriate for me to comment on any facet of the case."
That's the scandal to watch, Republicans said.
The hunting accident "really has gotten Scooter Libby out of the press," said Deb Gullett, a Republican activist from Phoenix, Arizona who is chief of staff to the city's mayor. "But it will come back."
"There are so many things going on that could be a great concern for Republicans, but this hunting thing is not one of them," she said.
"Should he have said something sooner about the accident? Of course he should have. But is it the end of the world? Of course not," she added.
Fellow Republicans said growing anti-war sentiment and President George W. Bush's warrantless spying program are bigger political problems for Republicans.
"At the White House press briefing, I think two-thirds of the questions were about this [hunting accident] when we have Iraq and a whole slew of other issues to deal with," including the CIA leak case, said J. Everett Moore Jr., a Washington lawyer and former chairman of the Delaware state Republican Party.
Cole said, "It does look to the average American that this is a self-indulgent exercise on behalf of the press when there are real debatable issues out there."
For now, the focus is on Cheney's shooting ability rather than whether he is shooting straight about the CIA leak case.
"The image of him falling is something I'll never ever be able to get out of my mind," Cheney told Fox News Channel as the White House sought to cast him as a sympathetic figure.
The vice president shot his friend, 78-year-old lawyer Harry Whittington, while quail hunting in Texas on Saturday.
"I fired, and there's Harry falling. It was, I'd have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment," Cheney said.
Even some Democrats weren't sure whether the latest Cheney controversy was good or bad for the White House.
"The bad news is he's talking about shooting a man, blaming the victim and covering it up," said Democratic consultant Jim Jordan. The White House initially suggested Whittington was at fault for putting himself in range of Cheney's rifle.
"The good news is he's not talking about his indicted chief of staff or ordering the leaking of classified information," Jordan said.
Political scientists outside Washington said they doubted Cheney would pay a political price for the hunting incident, though the case has reinforced his reputation as a secretive and controlling political power.
"It wasn't good huntsmanship, but it wasn't anything of national importance," said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin political science professor. "If it turns out that Scooter Libby is now willing to testify that he got directions from the vice president to leak the name of a CIA agent, that's a far more serious issue and damaging to Cheney."
"That other scandal is the one worth watching," he said.
also see story:
Joking aside, Cheney's hunting accident added to Bush's woes
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of