Brilliant (but it's Memos, not Minutes)

I always quip that Cheney could shoot someone in the face with a shotgun while drunk and no one would care. Pretty extreme example, I know, but I'll stand by my contention.

Oarwell: Are YOU sure there's no open season on lawyers in Texas?

I always quip that Cheney could shoot someone in the face with a shotgun while drunk and no one would care. Yeah, but did you go on to quip that the target would apologize?

What just blew my mind was that he could put off talking to the law for 24 hrs. or thereabouts, until it was convenient and he could sober up (not that the local sheriff would have cared if he was sober). That was just brilliant, suck it up people.

drip

it's also always been one of my favorite cheney facts that the guy he shot in the face apologized to him

"What just blew my mind was that he could put off talking to the law for 24 hrs. or thereabouts, until it was convenient and he could sober up (not that the local sheriff would have cared if he was sober)."

Sometimes I get the feeling there aren't a lot of folks with deep redneck backgrounds reading this blog. I used to drink beer WHILE hunting with my older brother and his highway patrolman friends when I was still underage (ah so long ago, those were the days), and I couldn't even shave yet, though I could lock and load. I feel sure that not too many Texas Rangers would care that someone white in a position of authority would drink beer and hunt at the same time. Hell, accidents happen, as long as you're white. In fact, although you all may not know it, beer cans are actually excellent targets, though friends will do to if you haven't finished your beer yet and your friends have been talking too much. You just have to make sure they aren't so close that you actually blow someone's head clean off, because that's disgusting.

N E, I got lost on those last two sentences, but were you saying that they would actually shoot the can while you were drinking from it? If so, that is really crazy RED Neck. I have noticed that accidents do happen to white people, but it helps if they are well fairly well to do, if not, well not so much.

He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming. It was clear that Cheney's doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times -- never apologize, never explain -- and Bush moved toward the conciliatory."

To what extent is this part of a larger project to rehabilitate George W. Bush's image? Cheney has always been willing to play to bad cop, here he seems to be doing it in an effort to make Bush look good by comparison. "Thank God we had the firm hand of George W. Bush at the helm, holding back that crazy Dick Cheney!"

knowdoubt:

I was joking there at the end, but not about the earlier stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if Cheney offered the sheriff a beer.

We never shot beer cans while we were actually still drinking for the reason you cite. We only shot the empties, and then with a .22, not shotguns. I'm an even worse shot than Dick Cheney--that's why I had to become a liberal--but I still never shot anyone in the face. Most heartlanders are responsible about using alcohol and firearms at the same time, even as adolescents, and we were always careful to shoot at the cans against rising terrain, because you don't want to kill somebody a mile away with a stray rifle bullet.

I was joking with the white people cracks too, though obviously in the heartland how much slack you get can depend on that, as well as how much money you have (as you point out). If you're going to shoot someone in the face in rural Texas, it's good to be a rich white guy, if not Vice President. I don't know if Henry Gates would have fared so well. But I agree with you that bigotry isn't all about race. I'm no Southerner, but as a former beer-can-shooting country boy who didn't become a pretentious New Yorker reader until much later, by background I probably have more in common with Southerners than a lot of people from the Eastern corridor, and I found Malcolm Gladwell's recent article on Atticus Finch and the limits of Southern liberalism fascinating in that regard. I think the points Gladwell makes are very astute. I had never thought of To Kill A Mockingbird that way.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/10/090810fa_fact_gladwell

If I was friends with the DICK, and he shot me in the face, I would damn sure apologize too.

I think the DICK's upcoming book will be something. He is plenty stupid enough to shot himself in the face, too.