Open season on VP
Once it became clear that Austin, Texas, lawyer Harry Whittington would survive getting accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney, the incident became instant fodder for headline writers and comedians. Foreign media zeroed in on the shooting as a metaphor for Cheney’s political outlook. The Herald in Scotland declared, “Cheney Bags a Lawyer,” while the Sydney Morning Heraldheadlined its story “Cheney Hunts Quail and the World Ducks.”
The blogosphere took its shots as well. “Dick Cheney Finally Takes a Stand Against Trial Lawyers,” declared the political blog Wonkette. Added the public-health blog Effect Measure: “After the incident, the Vice quit for the day, as he’d bagged his limit of rich Republican contributors.”
But it was the late-night comics who couldn’t get enough. “Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction. … It’s Dick Cheney,” David Letterman cracked on CBS’s “Late Show” Monday, adding: “We can’t get bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney.”