# I always knew Cheney was quick to temper after that, "Go fuck yourself,"... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 12, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164 "2006-02-12T21:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/441 "2006-02-17T21:46:51Z")
“oh, my lord, I am so sorry that my face and chest got in the way of all your birdshot, DICK. You must have had a real rough time with all this. It won’t happen again, I assure you.” :rolleyes: My sympathy for this man just went down a few notches. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/442 "2006-02-17T21:53:48Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > “oh, my lord, I am so sorry that my face and chest got in the way of all your birdshot, DICK. You must have had a real rough time with all this. It won’t happen again, I assure you.” > :rolleyes: > > My sympathy for this man just went down a few notches. careful, now… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/443 "2006-02-17T22:19:54Z")
> [@Lama Pacos](#): > > From CNN: > > > [@](#): > > > > Quote: > > Whittington, speaking to reporters outside the hospital where he was treated, added: “My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week.” > > Man, this guy is such an asshole for shooting the vice president! Linky-link, please? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/444 "2006-02-20T03:34:37Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > “I’m sorry you shot me in my fucking face” > > :rolleyes: x 1,000,000 It’s like a bad Yakoff Smirnoff routine. In Soviet Russia, Vice President apologises for shooting YOU! ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/445 "2006-02-20T06:56:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Linky-link, please? Lotsa links: [http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=5efe7fcd-7d56-4e01-af01-89d9bb91870d&k=23102](http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=5efe7fcd-7d56-4e01-af01-89d9bb91870d&k=23102) [http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/sorryforbeingshot.jpg](http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/sorryforbeingshot.jpg) Though I think **Lama** should have said something like, “Man, I’m really sorry my face was in the way.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/446 "2006-02-20T11:39:45Z")
[urk=“[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11363075/print/1/displaymode/1098/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11363075/print/1/displaymode/1098/)”]Mary Matalin reminds me of a number of things (she reminds [Arianna Huffington](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/russert-watch-the-mary-m_b_15990.html) of Maleficent, the evil witch from _Sleeping Beauty_, but enough cattiness for now), but the first thing that comes to mind is a third aspect of the coverup that I’d forgotten to mention: the initial effort to persuade the world that it was all really Harry Whittington’s fault for having gotten himself in the way of where Cheney was shooting. [Josh Marshall](http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007711.php) sums up the action nicely, noting that Katharine Armstrong, Scott McClellan, and Matalin herself went out and gave accounts to either imply that Cheney had broken no rules for handling firearms, or to specifically pin the blame on Whittington for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And there’s a fourth element of the coverup too - the coverup of how unusual accidents like this are, leading off with Armstrong’s ‘we all get peppered occasionally’ to Matalin’s “These sorts of accidents are not infrequent” yesterday. As Arianna notes, in Texas over the past decade, only one hunter in 26,000 has been involved in a reported hunting accident. So Cheney’s shooting of Whittington was apparently way out in the tail of the distribution. And getting back to the booze (coverup item #2, from upthread), Matalin was unwilling to answer a straight question from Russert about whether Cheney’s one beer at lunch was literally one beer: > [@](#): > > MR. RUSSERT: The suggestion being that perhaps there had been drinking going on that afternoon, and it could have been detected that evening as opposed to the next morning. And again, pointing to Ms. Armstrong’s own words, quote, “None in the hunting party was drinking alcohol, Armstrong said. No, zero, zippo. No one was drinking.” And then on Wednesday, the vice president, with FOX News, said, quote, “I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hour-long tour of the ranch. We didn’t go back into the field to hunt quail until, oh, sometime after 3 p.m.” Was alcohol in any way, shape or form consumed during the afternoon? And should we accept the president’s “a beer” as literally one beer? > > MS. MATALIN: What Katharine Armstrong was answering is a literal fact going to the question she was asked, which is always the case on the Armstrong ranch, you don’t drink and hunt, and you don’t hunt with drinkers. And that’s what the sheriff reported, that’s what she reported. It is true that the vice president had a beer at lunch, and let me ask anybody sitting at this table who knows the vice president, has known him for many years, has seen him in social situations, he’s known not to be a drinker. But let me ask you a more logical question—you think the Secret Service would let the vice president out, tanked up, with a loaded gun, or let him be around anybody who’s drunk with a loaded gun? It just defies common sense that the press would even go there. And that’s why these adversarial question-and- answer periods set up the presumption that Cheney would be drunk, or having to deny that Cheney was drunk, as opposed to presuming what we all know, that he doesn’t drink, he wouldn’t hunt and drink, the Secret Service wouldn’t let anybody around him who is drinking and hunting. Not only that, but she continues with the “Cheney known not to be a drinker” meme. C’mon, Mary, he had at least a beer with lunch (maybe more), and sometime after the ambulance carted Whittington away, he fixed himself a drink. The latter was quite understandable, but could you kindly stop BSing us? If Cheney’s a social drinker, just _say so_. I also like Matalin’s BS about how keeping a deputy from talking with Cheney on the evening of the shooting was “just national security.” Local law shows up Saturday night - threat to national security. Local law shows up Sunday morning - everything’s copacetic. Kinda like “red sky at night,” only backwards. I’d still like to know if any of his extensive meds interact with alcohol. If we’re lucky, maybe the press will ask about this sometime. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/447 "2006-02-20T11:41:21Z")
[Mary Matalin reminds me of a number of things](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11363075/print/1/displaymode/1098/) ‘urk’? OK, maybe that’s how I felt. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164/448 "2006-02-20T13:13:08Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > [Mary Matalin reminds me of a number of things](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11363075/print/1/displaymode/1098/) > > ‘urk’? OK, maybe that’s how I felt. :smack: I read all of Matalin’s calls for “a little human empathy” for Cheney and I’m thinking, “For Cheney? The fucking Vice President for Torture?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-always-knew-cheney-was-quick-to-temper-after-that-go-fuck-yourself/344164.md?page=22)