But Seriously Folks

All kidding aside, the handling of the Cheney shooting incident does raise serious questions about his appreciation of his role as a public figure. The notion that the vice president would leave it to a private citizen to tell the media the next day that he shot someone is baffling. As the Financial Times reports, it certainly baffled the reporter who took the call Sunday morning:

The [ranch] owner eventually rang the Corpus Christi Caller Times, a local paper. The duty Sunday reporter, after hearing the tale, asked: "Do you mean the vice-president ... You'd better tell me that again."

Mr. Cheney tried to turn the matter to that of dissing the mainstream media, by notifying the Corpus Christi Caller Times instead of the New York Times. But the issue is his abdication of his responsibility as a public figure by leaving the chore of notifying the world to a private citizen. Mr. Cheney loves the power and influence he wields; he just doesn't like the accountability that goes with the job.