VP Cheney, responding to a question (by Fox News' Brit Hume) about why he waited to tell the press about shooting Harry Whittington:

[We] also didn't know what the outcome here was going to be. We didn't know for sure what kind of shape Harry was in. We had preliminary reports, but they wanted to do a CAT scan, for example, to see how -- whether or not there was any internal damage, whether or not any vital organ had been penetrated by any of the shot. We did not know until Sunday morning that we could be confident that everything was probably going to be OK.

In other words, if he had died, they wouldn't release anything to the press?  Or were they just trying to see how much they had to whitewash?  Because I assume that if Whittington had died, there's no way Cheney would be named the shooter.

Elsewhere, Josh Marshall examines the complete 180 that Bush water carrier conservative pundit Mary Matalin pulled, first by blaming Whittington for the shooting and absolving her former boss of any blame...then by denying it completely, claiming that "no such thing occurred."

See, it's not the shooting that's the big deal here.  It's the coverup, the suspicion, the paranoia, the cloud of lies...all, unfortunately, hallmarks of this Administration.