So Dick Cheney shot a guy.  It happens.  It happens all the time…to experienced, careful hunters.  It’s truly unfortunate every single time, and there’s no doubt in my mind that if the shooter had done something different, or if the shootee had done something different, it could have been prevented.  But people are not 100% perfect 100% of the time…and even if they were, the universe is always coming up with new ways to screw with our sense of order and predictability.

     From a personal stand-point, this is huge.  The poor guy (the shootee)will probably have ill effects from this for the rest of his life.  If he lives through the initial incident, he’ll at the very least have to explain himself repeatedly at the airport security checkpoints…but most likely, he’ll have some physical hold-overs from the accident that will haunt him.  They might not be insurmountable ill effects, and most likely (if he is like most sportsmen I know) he’s accepted them as the price of doing something he loves.

     If Dick Cheney is any kind of a human being, he will probably have to deal with some guilt and remorse.  Boy do I hope he has those.  I mean, his level of culpability might be open for debate…but in the end, he pulled the trigger and hurt another human being and God help you if that doesn’t cause you some level of pain, discomfort, and self-doubt.

     From a political standpoint, this is just sad.  Yes, Cheney will have to put up with being the butt of crass and tasteless jokes at his expense (I’ll cop to being a party to this…both making the jokes and laughing at the jokes of others)…and if the guy dies possibly even have to go through some sort of cursory criminal proceeding to determine his level of culpability, and yes, if he does those proceedings will be charged to the over-load point with political point-scoring that is both inappropriate and harmful to both the criminal justice system and the political climate of this country.

     But I think some of us remember the uncharitable comments made about John Kerry when he went on his little goose-hunting expedition during the last election cycle…and HE didn’t even shoot anybody.  Plus, he’s been in a WAR…and conservatives were mocking him as someone who shouldn’t be allowed to hold a gun, and a complete incompetent.  Then Cheney accidentally shoots someone and everyone is supposed to just understand the situation and move on?  There’s this word.  Alliterates with “hippo” rhymes with “theocracy”.

     Hey, what comes around goes around.  You feed someone else to the fire, it just grows bigger and hungrier and when it’s your turn you can’t exactly cry about it, can you?

     I don’t feel bad for Cheney, he’s a pig in mud.  He hasn’t tried to change anything about the political climate, and he’s contributed to the disease more than his fair share, and he’ll keep doing it long after this bru-ha-ha has passed.  I’m sure to him it’s just a set-back he’ll have to minimize and get through and he will continue on the same as he always has.  It seems unlikely that this is anymore than an uncomfortable blip on his radar.

     Mostly, I feel badly for us.  Because while an honest and unfortunate accident takes up the foreseeable future of the news cycle, there are uncounted real news stories about Dick Cheney that would be if greater importance to the American public going unseen, uninvestigated, and unreported.  We’re attracted to the façade of “personal” about this story when there is nothing about any of our politicians that can be distinguished from their public image.  They’ve been so spun, I’m not sure they know the difference between their personal and public lives…and neither can we.

     We can’t tell if they really care that they shot someone and that person is fighting for their life…or if they are just trying to figure out how to look like they care.  We can’t trust their words, their reactions, their thoughts, or their “facts” with regards to any story whether it’s the accidental shooting of a hunting companion or global warming, or the necessity and urgency of a given war.

     I’m sure Cheney cares that this guy is injured…but I’m just as sure that he’s busier trying to figure out how to do damage control to his public persona than in dealing with the personal matter of his own remorse.  He can’t learn, he can’t grow, he can’t change.  He just has to keep playing the game the way it’s played…and that means playing us as much as we’ll allow ourselves to be played.

     And I think that’s a real tragedy.