At last, President Cheney speaks. Unfortunately he spoils any sympathy with his sneaky, weirdo self.

Despite the jokes, shooting a friend is not funny. Thousands of Americans die every year due to accidental gunshot wounds, although most of those fatalities are children not millionaire attorneys. (And Republicans typically oppose gun controls that would prevent these needless injuries.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, ultimately, I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. And you can talk about all of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that's the bottom line. And there's no -- it was not Harry's fault. You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend. And I say that is something I'll never forget.

I think Cheney was sincere when he said they it was the worst day of his life and I respect him for taking responsibility. Listening to Bush, Brown, Delay and Chertoff, one can appreciate how rare personal responsibility has become.

Why did it take 4 days?

I was feeling badly for Cheney when he went and ruined it with his old, bizarro explanations. Why did it take him 4 days to speak to the public? Why didn't the White House break the story instead of waiting for some podunk Texas newspaper? A complicated story?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, my first reaction, Brit, was not to think: I need to call the press. My first reaction is: My friend, Harry, has been shot and we've got to take care of him. That evening there were other considerations. We wanted to make sure his family was taken care of. His wife was on the ranch. She wasn't with us when it happened, but we got her hooked up with the ambulance on the way to the hospital with Harry. He has grown children; we wanted to make sure they were notified, so they didn't hear on television that their father had been shot. And that was important, too.

Q Well, what -- you must have recognized, though, with all your experience in Washington, that this was going to be a big story.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, true, it was unprecedented. I've been in the business for a long time and never seen a situation quite like this. We've had experiences where the President has been shot; we've never had a situation where the Vice President shot somebody.

Q Well, did it occur to you that sooner was -- I mean, the one thing that we've all kind of learned over the last several decades is that if something like this happens, as a rule sooner is better.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, if it's accurate. If it's accurate. And this is a complicated story.

Q But there were some things you knew. I mean, you knew the man had been shot, you knew he was injured, you knew he was in the hospital, and you knew you'd shot him.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Correct.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I 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. And I thought that made good sense for several reasons. First of all, she was an eye-witness. She'd seen the whole thing. Secondly, she'd grown up on the ranch, she'd hunted there all of her life. Third, she was the immediate past head of the Texas Wildlife and Parks Department, the game control commission in the state of Texas, an acknowledged expert in all of this.

If a member of the White House shoots someone, that is more than a Grisham novel, it is big news. The White House has a responsibility to say something. Cheney thought it best that a small local paper break the story because he didnt think people would trust him and because he wanted them to have all the facts? WTF? HE was there. HE shot the guy. HE has all the facts, not the newspaper. This is just such a strange response, I dont know why he would even say it...

Was alcohol involved?

I thought the matter was done but now someone has raised the issue of legalized drugs.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: The five of us who were in that party were together all afternoon. Nobody was drinking, nobody was under the influence.

Was Cheney drunk? Was the victim drunk? Does it make a difference? I dont know if it does make a difference to me. After all accidents happen. But when the answer is not a definitive "no", the answer is probably not no.

When strange things happen to secretive people

I am amazed to find people that still talk about Whitewater as if some terrible thing happened there that Ken Starr couldnt find after years of looking but we need to know about. In the past 5 years, we have had the secret energy commission, the failure to prevent 9/11, the fictitious WMD's and Abu Ghraib. This shooting is just another in a log string of mysterious and suspicious activities of the Bush Administration that is unlikely to be explained any time soon.