[Mb-civic] Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP
Public Statement On Shooting Urged

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; A01

Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the 
accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the 
quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush 
administration and is prompting senior White House officials to press 
Cheney to publicly address the issue as early as today, several 
prominent Republicans said yesterday.

The Republicans said Cheney should have immediately disclosed the 
shooting Saturday night to avoid even the suggestion of a coverup and 
should have offered a public apology for his role in accidentally 
shooting Harry Whittington, a GOP lawyer from Austin. Whittington was 
hospitalized Saturday night in Corpus Christi, Tex., and was moved back 
into the intensive-care unit after suffering an abnormal heart rhythm 
yesterday morning.

"I cannot believe he does not look back and say this should have been 
handled differently," said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman 
from Minnesota who is close to the White House. Weber said Cheney "made 
it a much bigger issue than it needed to be."

Marlin Fitzwater, a former Republican White House spokesman, told Editor 
& Publisher magazine that Cheney "ignored his responsibility to the 
American people."

The episode is turning into a defining moment for Cheney, a vice 
president who has operated with enormous clout to shape White House 
policy while avoiding public scrutiny over the past five years.

President Bush has allowed Cheney to become perhaps the most powerful 
vice president in history and has provided him with unparalleled 
autonomy. Early in Bush's first term, Cheney developed the 
administration's energy policy, largely behind closed doors, and then 
heavily influenced Iraq policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

No evidence has emerged to suggest that the shooting was anything more 
than a hunting accident, but the spectacle of the vice president 
wounding a prominent Republican at an exclusive Texas ranch has become 
the punch line for politicians and comedians alike, and has penetrated 
the popular culture through late-night television. Sen. Trent Lott 
(R-Miss.) said he referred to Cheney as the "shooter in chief" in a 
meeting with members of Congress yesterday morning. It has also raised 
anew criticism of Cheney's operating style.

Cheney has avoided public comment on the shooting other than to release 
two short statements. One stated that he would be issued a warning for 
not paying a $7 hunting fee in Texas; the other, released by his office 
yesterday, detailed when he learned of Whittington's worsening condition 
and said his "thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family."

Whittington suffered an irregular heartbeat yesterday after a shotgun 
pellet in his chest traveled to his heart, according to hospital 
officials in Corpus Christi.

Some current and former White House officials said Cheney's refusal to 
address the issue or accept any blame has the potential to become a 
political problem for Bush because it reinforces the image of a 
secretive and above-the-law White House. Top White House aides are 
pressuring Cheney to discuss the incident as early as today, according 
to people familiar with the matter.

Cheney, a former House member, White House chief of staff and corporate 
executive, is dismissive of the national media and unfazed by criticism 
and unflattering publicity. Bush picked Cheney as vice president in 
large part because of his lack of political ambitions and his ability to 
keep confidences.

"If I read Dick Cheney right, he's got to be just devastated" by the 
shooting incident, said Robert H. Michel, a former House Republican 
leader from Illinois and a longtime friend. But Michel said he is 
mystified that the vice president has not come out in public to express 
his feelings.

"I guess he's so measured with what he does say personally, but boy, I'd 
think on something of this nature, you'd let your feelings [be] known," 
Michel said.

In general, Michel said, Cheney has "enclosed" his personal feelings so 
tightly to avoid showing them in public. "I guess that discipline upon 
himself is probably the thing that holds him back." Cheney, he added, is 
virtually immune to public criticism and image problems: "I don't think 
he really cares."

Former senator Alan K. Simpson, a fellow Wyoming Republican who hunts 
with Cheney, said the vice president decided when he was defense 
secretary during the Persian Gulf War that journalists ask "stupid 
questions" and distort things, and so he probably sees no need to 
publicly explain himself.

"Whatever he does, Dick will do it his own way, because whatever he 
does, it will be the subject of ridicule," Simpson said.

That disregard for public approval, though, can become a problem for the 
White House, according to veteran presidential aides from both parties. 
"When the vice president is immune to politics and tone-deaf to 
politics, as Vice President Cheney has shown himself to be at various 
stages along the way, then his perspective on this kind of situation 
isn't as sharp," said Ronald A. Klain, chief of staff to Vice President 
Al Gore.

Despite a string of political embarrassments linked to Cheney, including 
not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the indictment of the 
vice president's chief of staff in the CIA leak case and now the 
shooting, he remains a powerful force inside the White House.

A testament to his power is the deference Bush showed Cheney in the 
handling of last weekend's shooting episode. White House aides said Bush 
has not pressured Cheney to disclose more details about the shooting or 
to apologize.

One person close to both men said that Bush is the only person in the 
White House who could persuade Cheney to change strategy and that even 
high-level White House aides are reluctant to take on the vice 
president's office. That left White House press secretary Scott 
McClellan to be battered by reporters on national television.

"This is one of the challenges of having a high-profile, very powerful 
vice president inside the White House," said Klain, who added: "The 
disadvantage is when something negative happens involving the vice 
president, it is much harder for the White House staff to step in and 
exert control."

Typically, the relationships between vice presidents and White House 
staffs are fraught with politics and personal ambitions because nearly 
every modern vice president has used the position as a launching pad for 
his own campaign for the top job. With Cheney, Republicans have often 
boasted that no such dynamic would get in the way because he does not 
covet the presidency. Cheney has said he will never run for president.

Nonetheless, the relationship has become increasingly complicated. With 
no political future of his own at stake, Cheney seems indifferent to 
public perceptions of him. He prefers not to talk with reporters, 
favoring red-meat speeches before friendly audiences such as last week's 
Conservative Political Action Committee gathering or call-in chats to 
conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and Sean 
Hannity.

His approval rating dropped to an all-time low of 36 percent in 
November, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, before rebounding to 
41 percent last month. Although White House officials disagree, some 
outside Republicans wonder whether he has lost influence because his 
aggressive promotion of the Iraq war led to the CIA leak case and the 
indictment of his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned 
after being charged.

Mary Matalin, a Cheney adviser who has helped him deal with the shooting 
fallout, rejected suggestions that the White House's handling of the 
incident might result in political damage. "We have a history replete 
with evidence to the contrary," she said. "Every time we've had 
predictions of monumental liability, it never occurred."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021402137.html
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