Cheney makes a public statement--finally.

Fours days after the incident, Dick Cheney finally made a public statement about shooting Harry Whittington. Cheney went on Fox News (gee, what a surprise), and said the following:

Ultimately I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that's something I'll never forget.

*******

It was not Harry's fault. You cannot blame anybody else.

And he could not have said this on Sunday, or even Monday? He knew all of the relevant facts Saturday evening. What was gained by waiting until today? If Cheney knew all the facts before today--which he did--why did he allow others to publicly say the matter was Whittington's fault?

This sure seems to me like like a repeat of Bush's "agreement" to the McCain amendment. Over the last few days, nobody was really buying the story that this was Whittington's fault, nobody was really buying the explanations as to why almost 24 hours passed before the public was notified, nobody was convinced that leaving disclosure up the discretion of a private citizen made any sense, various articles were written that Cheney violated hunting safety rules, etc. In other words, Cheney really had no choice but to publicly say it was his fault.

Part of being a leader is owning up to your actions. Cheney had all the facts needed to do this days ago, and yet he said nothing and allowed others to lay the blame on Whittington. As far as I am concerned, that makes Cheney really sorry--and I'm not talking about apologetic.