The Huffington Post has gotten some advance highlights of a rather disparaging quiz concerning America’s vice president that is due to be published in the upcoming March issue of GQ. According to HuffPo, the title of the quiz is “You Don’t Know Dick.” Here are some sample questions:

7 NUMBER OF MILITARY DEFERMENTS CHENEY RECEIVED DURING THE VIETNAM WAR:
[ A ] None
[ B ] Two
[ C ] Four
[ D ] Five

11 TO WHAT EVENT DID CHENEY WEAR THIS OUTFIT, COMPLETE WITH HIKING BOOTS, A MONOGRAMMED PARKA, AND A SKI CAP READING “STAFF 2001”?
[ A ] A fall ’03 campaign speech at the VFW in Skokie, Illinois
[ B ] The sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
[ C ] A “pimps up, hos down” party at the vice presidential residence thrown in honor of the Royal Nepalese ambassador

As you would imagine, no quiz about the vice president would be complete without some references to his former company:

The three broadcast network evening newscasts all led Tuesday night with the minor heart attack suffered by the victim of Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident, but all gave equal time to, for the second night in a row, obsessing over the snubbing of the White House press corps -- this time how Scott McClellan didn’t inform them of Harry Whittington’s complication. ABC co-anchor Charles Gibson teased: “The man Vice President Cheney accidentally shot, today suffers a minor heart attack as the White House faces new questions about its silence.” NBC’s Brian Williams teased from Torino: “There are more questions tonight about who knew what and when." Elizabeth Vargas, ABC’s other anchor complained about how “today the White House, once again, chose not to tell the public about a major development in this story.” ABC reporter Martha Raddatz recited “stinging” criticism of the White House from former GOP press secretaries before she concluded by fretting about how Cheney’s “staff has still not answered detailed questions about this incident...And it's not clear they ever will."

CBS anchor Bob Schieffer asserted, “Then there's the other question hanging over this: Why has the Vice President remained silent?” Gloria Borger chipped in with how someone “close to this administration” just happened to see the situation and administration incompetence the same way as the White House press corps: “‘It's no longer about indulging Dick Cheney's views of press management.' Instead, he says, ‘it's now about Iraq and Katrina and a range of other issues that play into the public's views of this administration's arrogance.'” Schieffer asked that, since “nobody's going to ask the Vice President to quit,...do you suppose that we'll see the role of the Vice President changing?...Maybe back to the funeral beat is what Vice Presidents used to do before this Vice President came along." Back to NBC, David Gregory, the most prolific antagonist to McClellan at the Monday and Tuesday press briefings, insisted that “there are still unanswered questions surrounding Saturday's shooting.” He proposed two: “Why did the local sheriff in Kenedy County, Texas wait 14 hours to interview the Vice President?” And: “Did the Vice President follow hunting safety guidelines?” (Transcripts follow.)

Thirty-six minutes into tonight's Hardball, host Chris Matthews finally permitted a Cheney defender, former Cheney aide Ron Christie, to grace his program. Even then, Christie was denied an unobstructed opportunity to make his case, having to share the segment with hyper-partisan Dem consultant Bob Shrum - he of the record-breaking number of losing presidential campaigns - who tried to drag in everything from Iraq to Hurricane Katrina.

Until Christie's belated appearance, Hardball was an absolutely ceaseless cavalcade of criticism heaped on the Veep and his handling of the shooting incident that included:

• clips of NBC reporter David Gregory haranguing Scott McClellan;
• file footage of Gloria Borger supposedly tripping up Cheney over the Saddam/Al-Qaeda connection;
• MSNBC reporter David Shuster's decidedly downbeat portrayal of events;
• a grim assessment from Washington Post reporter Jim Vandehei;
• a pessimistic view of Whittington's medical situation by former NIH director Bernadine Healy; and finally
• a panel discussion with former Clinton Press Secretary Dede Myers and DC factotum David Gergen

The negative portrayal of the Vice-President and of the administration's handling of the matter was absolutely unrelenting.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews seriously asked on the 5pm EST edition of Tuesday’s Hardball, about media coverage of the Cheney hunting accident: “Has the press been playing this down?” Matthews exclaimed that he was “shocked” at how “this was bottom of the fold in the New York Times and the Washington Post yesterday.” He went on to claim: “I've talked to experts, they can't believe that the papers treated this as such a light issue.” Turning to guest Dee Dee Myers, Matthews contended: “I was kind of surprised, to put it lightly, to see that the major newspapers on the East coast had buried this story below the fold and it was only today that they brought it up above the fold." Matthews’ thesis was too ludicrous even for an astounded Myers, President Clinton’s one-time Press Secretary, who countered with common sense: "I don't think putting it on the front page is burying it, Chris, I think that was an appropriate placement for the story.” (Fuller transcript follows.)

Video excerpt (21 secs): Real (600 KB) or Windows Media (700 KB) Plus MP3 audio (160 KB)

Television producer and “McLaughlin Group” regular Lawrence O’Donnell is offering an explanation of the now infamous weekend quail hunting accident at the Huffington Post: Vice President Dick Cheney was drunk. O’Donnell’s proof? All the lawyers that he’s talked to since the news of this event was first released on Sunday say so, and wealthy Republicans are all drunks. I’m not kidding.

O’Donnell began his piece:

“The L.A. Times is edging closer to the most likely reason for the 18 hour delay in reporting that the Vice President of the United States shot someone:

“‘This was a hunting accident,’ said Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office. ‘There was no alcohol or misconduct.’"

Much like the Richard Dreyfuss character in the movie "Jaws," O’Donnell doesn’t believe this was a hunting accident:

Let me begin by stating the obvious, the media has overblown the coverage of Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident, and nowhere was that more clear than on CBS’s "The Early Show" this morning. There were a total of 6 stories dealing with the subject this morning, as well as one story tease. Four of these stories plus the story tease occurred in the first fifteen minutes of the broadcast.

Julie Chen opened the program:

Julie Chen: "Good morning, I'm Julie Chen. Hunting for answers, there's a growing firestorm over the delay in reporting Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident as White House spokesperson Scott McClellan was pounded with questions at a press briefing Monday, we'll have all the latest"

In the wake of Vice President Cheney’s hunting accident, Harry Smith did a segment on hunting safety in the 8:00 half hour of this morning’s "The Early Show" on CBS complete with broomsticks. Dressed in an orange vest and holding a broom, Smith may have been confused for a member of the cleanup crew out on the plaza. However, we were informed that the orange vest was a hunting vest and we were supposed to pretend that the broom was a shotgun. But, if they were using brooms to represent shotguns, were the vests necessary, or were they truly fearful that the brooms may accidentally fire?

I can understand why Harry Smith and CBS wouldn’t want to use real guns for the segment, safety concerns for instance, but couldn’t CBS have spent $20 and bought some toy guns for the segment? In any case, Harry Smith’s explanation suffers from delusions of grandeur:

Why?

Why, over a weekend so full of news regarding important issues, such as Al Gore's disgraceful speech in Jeddah, or the growing strength of the American economy, or even the troubling issue of Iran's decision to go forward with their uranium enrichment process -- defying the UN in a direct manner -- has the press chosen to obsess over a minor hunting accident? How obsessed is the MSM over this story? Here's an example for you:

Editor and Publisher reports that liberal political cartoonist Ted Rall is not happy about remarks made by conservative commentator Ann Coulter. At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Coulter stated, "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions."

Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonsbury," does not want to sue, but Ted Rall said on his blog that if enough people vote in favor of it on his online poll, and if readers give him $6000 for court costs, he'll sue Coulter in New York.

Says Ted Rall on his blog:

In response to Noel, I think it will be fascinating to document how much the media tries to ignore the Mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, as he campaigns against Hillary. He may be obscure and under-financed compared to Mrs. Slick Willie (and who wouldn't be?), but he is feisty. His press statement on his new TV ad demonstrates that:

Yonkers, N.Y.: John Spencer, the conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate facing Senator Clinton, released a television ad today that documents how Senator Clinton places politics ahead of national security by opposing the National Security Agency's wiretapping of overseas calls from Al Qaeda into the United States.

The New York Times published an article on Tuesday concerning an annual Conservative Party conference held in Albany, New York, on Monday. Reporter Jennifer Medina addressed issues raised by some of that state’s Republican candidates for governor and attorney general. Yet, Medina and the Times chose not to report in its print editions statements made at this meeting by John Spencer, the likely Republican candidate to oppose Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for senator this November.

At about 1PM EST on Monday, the Associated Press ran an article (hat tip to Drudge Report) about Spencer’s comments at this conference with the headline “Spencer: Clinton aids and abets our enemies.” According to the article, Spencer said “the New York Democrat's criticism of the Bush administration ‘aids and abets our enemies’ in the battle against terrorism.” Yet, for some reason, the Times chose not to report this part of the meeting to its readers, and didn't address Spencer's attendance at this conference at all.

A LexisNexis search identified few media outlets that covered this report. In New York, Newsday placed a 251-word watered-down version of this AP story on page A17. That was better than the Daily News who, like the Times, didn’t report this at all. Why should they, as Spencer had some strong language for Hillary and her husband:

Open thread is back. Fill 'er up, folks.

This weekend’s vice presidential quail hunting trip is fast becoming a comedian’s dream. Channel and Internet surfing is suddenly a virtual “Open Mike” night at the Comedy Store.

Next on stage was the host of the demised Comedy Central program (remember when it was a decent show before Bill sold out to ABC!) “Politically Incorrect.” Bill Maher decided to write a mock script, posted at the Huffington Post, of how things progressed after Harry Whittington was accidentally shot:

"Um. Sir. Mr. Vice President, he's kinda just laying there."

"Shhhhhh!!!! He's a lawyer. You want him to sue?...Harry? You OK? Harry? See? He's fine. This is just part of the administration's new tort reform package."

Nice gratuitous shot at lawyers and tort reform in the same punchline, Bill. From there, Maher went after the medical profession adding a dash of stereotypical anti-Semitism:

Click here for instructions on running Gaggle daily on your own site. There's also an archive of previous toons available here.

CNN's Jack Cafferty has created a little career as a gruff anti-Bush commentator on "The Situation Room." His schtick has struck me as an attempt to be the anti-Bill O'Reilly. So it's not surprising that on The Huffington Post, left-wing radio show host Cenk Uygur is campaigning for CNN to give Cafferty his own hour-long soap box in a post titled "How Jack Cafferty Can Save America." (Hat tip: TV Newser.) All by himself, Cafferty can reverse a supposedly unanimous conservative American media:

He is a rare truth teller on cable news. He gets a couple of minutes a day on CNN to do "The Cafferty File." And every time it is a breath of fresh air - a man speaking truth to power. If CNN would just give Cafferty his own show in primetime, where he can frame the conversation, he can choose the topics and he can ask the right questions, we can turn this whole thing around.

Imagine you're a member of the media, and in your heart you believe that a major official wouldn't mind seeing you burn to death. Think that might affect the way you cover him?

A comment on this morning's "Early Show" by veteran CBS reporter Bill Plante, while perhaps intended to be light-hearted, pulled back the curtain on just how antagonistic the White House press corps believes VP Cheney to be toward them. But more importantly, it suggests how antagonistic they likely feel in return.

The topic was the Veep's accidental shooting of hunting partner Harry Whittington, and more particularly the very contentious press conference yesterday between the White House press corps and presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. Windows Media or Real Player

Mondays are normally a target rich environment for television talk show hosts that, like most Americans, take weekends off. After all, they’ve got more days to cover than normal. And, given a major East Coast snowstorm, a Congressional report on how the three levels of government handled the Katrina disaster, two air marshals facing drug charges, Saddam returning to trial, Alabama church burnings, the United Nations calling for the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, clashes in Haiti, and Tehran threatening to abandon a nuclear treaty, you would think that there was a lot for any member of the press to really sink his/her teeth into today. Yet, for some reason, Chris Matthews decided to spend the better part of three quarters of Monday’s 7PM EST installment of “Hardball” discussing a quail hunting accident the vice president had this weekend.

Matthews began: “Questions, questions, questions. The vice president of the United States shoots someone in the face late Saturday afternoon. Why didn`t he tell us? Why did Cheney wait until today, Monday, to talk to the president?”

In reality, it seemed that Matthews was the one with questions, and was thoroughly annoyed that the vice president of the United States, after accidentally shooting a close friend while hunting, didn’t immediately call a press conference to alert the media. This indignation went so far that NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory and Matthews actually discussed whether or not the vice president was calling the shots, and, therefore, had too much power. From closed captioning:

On Monday night, both the NBC Nightly News and the CBS Evening News, led with Vice President Cheney’s accidental shooting of a hunting companion, treating it as the most important news of the day as they focused on journalistic upset with how the late Saturday afternoon shooting wasn’t disclosed until noontime Sunday -- and then to a local reporter instead of to a member of the White House press corps. "What took so long?” anchor Brian Williams demanded as he teased the NBC Nightly News from Torino. “Tonight, the White House under fire over the Vice President's hunting accident." Williams soon echoed his earlier demand: "Tonight, what happened and why didn't the public learn about the accident sooner?" NBC reporter David Gregory, a prime antagonist at Monday’s White House press briefing, complained: “The Vice President's office would only confirm the story when asked about it some 18 hours after the incident occurred. At today's often contentious press briefing, the question remained: Why did the Vice President sit on this information?" Gregory ended by asserting: "Another serious question tonight, of course: Did the Vice President follow hunting safety standards?”

Anchor Bob Schieffer applied an historic clarion call as he teased the CBS Evening News: “It was the shot heard around the world, or at least around the country. Vice President Cheney wounds a companion in a hunting accident...” Jim Axelrod marveled, “Think about it: The Vice President of the United States shoots someone, and the general public doesn't find out for 21 hours. Now that's the recipe for an uproar." Axelrod also found it remarkable that for “two and a half hours...no one told the President Mr. Cheney had shot someone.” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos suggested the shooting “could become just a metaphor. You know, you’re already seeing the jokes about competence, the gang who couldn’t shoot straight. It brings up other questions where the White House's credibility has been called into question in the past.” (Transcripts follow.)

Let the record show that it took the MSM less than a day to float the possibility that Dick Cheney intentionally shot Harry Whittington.

And who better to surmise that the Vice-President might have been trying to bump off his buddy than Ron Reagan, that primetime speaker at the Kerry convention who moonlights as an MSNBC "political analyst"?

Reagan appeared on tonight's Hardball with Chris Matthews, and in decrying the fact that the Secret Service apparently denied local law enforcement immediate access to Cheney, said the following:

"Law enforcement is entitled to investigate this case, to find out what happened, to find out if he had anything against Mr. Whittington, and to find out - again I don't mean to suggest anything - to find out if anyone had been drinking . . ."