LETTERS: Administration Still Has Some 'Splainin' to Do on Cheney Story

By: E&P Staff With the departure of Online Editor Jay Defoore, we've been a little tardy in getting letters posted here and this may continue for awhile. Please bear with us!

If you want to add your voice to the discussion, send us an e-mail at letters@editorandpublisher.com.

Eye Witness?

Responding to E&P report on Vice President Cheney's interview with Fox News:

Vice President Cheney said "Karl has hunted at the Armstrong, as well, and we're both good friends of the Armstrongs and of Katherine Armstrong. And Katherine suggested, and I agreed, that she would go make the announcement, that is that she'd put the story out."

He went on to say "And I thought that made good sense for several reasons. First of all, she was an eye-witness. She'd seen the whole thing."

Now the interesting thing is that in one of her earliest statements Armstrong said that she was sitting in a car, and that when she saw Secret Service agents running towards the party she thought that Cheney had a heart attack. Which seems to suggest that she was not a witness to the incident at all, which then calls all of Cheney's statments into question.

John Trask
Thousand Oaks, CA

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Birdshot, Not Napalm

Nice, very nice, piece on the Cheney shooting. As much hostility as I feel for Cheney, Bush, Rove, et al, I can't get worked up over this story. It was a shooting accident. No one died. It was birdshot, not napalm. Even if the VP had been semi-drunk, I wouldn't want to see him crucified; not over this. Of all the coverage I've seen, including cable, the Net, the L.A. Times (my home paper), your account struck me as the fairest, least sensational and most reasonable. Well done!

Dave Macaray

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No, E&P Not Face-to-Face with Scott McClellan

Let me say how grateful I am to have E&P asking the questions I want answered, and for digging deeper. Are you guys at the gaggle?

Martha Sterling-Golden
Coastal Crankosphere, Maine

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Re: Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition' After Writing Letter to Editor

Veterans Affairs officials investigating V.A. nurse Laura Berg for "sedition" should read the law before launching a crusade against valid criticism.

Current legislation defines sedition as "willfully making false reports or false statements with the intent to interfere with the success of United States military operations. " (See: CURRENT LAW - TITLE 18 - CHAPTER 115 - TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES)

Criticizing the Bush Administration ineptitude is not false or treasonous. Moreover recent history indicates that a change in administration will improve military performance.

Redford Givens
Webmaster, Schaffer Library of Drug Policy
San Francisco

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Administration Should Learn to Multi-task

?The very first priority was making sure that Mr. Whittington was getting the medical care he needed. Secondary to that is gathering the facts so you can provide that information to the public."

This is what White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan had to say about why neither the Vice President or his staff reported the shooting of a fellow hunter to the police, why they kept the incident from the public, and, (perhaps my favorite part), why they not only used a private citizen as the defacto Vice Presidential press office for disseminating information about the incident, but apparently also let that citizen decide with her family when and where to reveal the information.

When did we stop being the greatest, most technologically advanced country in the world and turn into some backwater joke? To put forth the idea, as Mr. McClellan repeatedly did, that the resources of the United States, as held in the offices of the President and Vice President, are not equal to the task of getting medical attention for one man while simultaneously making announcements and updates to the press is beyond ridiculous. Are they claiming incompetence as an excuse or as standard operating procedure?

This incident illuminates why the Bush Administration has mishandled Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and pretty much everything they have touched. They apparently can?t do more than one thing at a time, they lie about what they have done, and they blame their victims. Unfortunately for us all, the one thing they really excel at is wreaking destruction on innocent bystanders.

Ruth Lopez
Orlando, Fla.