CHENEY KINDA SORTA TAKES THE BLAME

But not really. Not if you read the transcript of the chit-chat Dick Cheney had with Brit Hume at Fox.

Who's to blame for the shooting of Harry Whittington? Perhaps the sun, or the terrain -- or maybe even Harry Whittington. Dick Cheney said:

He was dressed in orange, he was dressed properly, but he was also -- there was a little bit of a gully there, so he was down a little ways before land level, although I could see the upper part of his body when -- I didn't see it at the time I shot, until after I'd fired. And the sun was directly behind him -- that affected the vision, too, I'm sure.

Yes yes, sure sure -- but what about the ultimate responsibility, Mr. Vice President?

Well, ultimately, I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. And you can talk about all of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that's the bottom line. And there's no -- it was not Harry's fault. You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend. And I say that is something I'll never forget.

You know, better still would have been "I'm the guy who has the finger that pulled the trigger that tripped a pin that fired a shell that expended No. 8 shot into my good friend, Harry." Better disconnection from reality: I shot a man.

But Cheney isn't done dodging. Check this segment of the interview:

HUME: Was anybody drinking in this party?

CHENEY: No. You don't hunt with people who drink. That's not a good idea. We had --

HUME: So he wasn't, and you weren't?

CHENEY: Correct. We'd taken a break at lunch -- go down under an old -- ancient oak tree there on the place, and have a barbecue. I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hour-long tour of ranch, with a ranch hand driving the vehicle, looking at game. We didn't go back into the field to hunt quail until about, oh, sometime after 3:00 p.m.

The old "I had a beer" line. If only Whittington had followed his advice and not gone hunting with someone who had been drinking.