...and this past weekend’s Dick-shoots-hunting-buddy story had already struck me as incredibly bizarre, symbolic, ironic, karmic, et cetera. And then I read the transcript of today’s Cheney interview by Brit Hume of Fox News and the bizarro factor clicked up another notch.
There was one laugh-out-loud line from Mr. Hume, who – after Cheney described how his errant shotgun blast had struck his homeboy in the face, neck, and torso – came through with this follow-up:
Q: And you — and I take it, you missed the bird?
Other than that, it was Cheney time, which was less funny and more strange and shiver-inducing, much like Cheney himself. Here’s Dick telling Hume how he and one hunting buddy had split off from another hunting buddy:
Q: There was just two of you then?
A: Just two of us at that point. The guide or outrider between us, and of course, there's this entourage behind us, all the cars and so forth that follow me around when I'm out there.
So you’re out there in the country…you’re creeping up on quail…with an entourage of cars and so forth following behind you? Oh. Okay.
A. But the bird flushed and went to my right, off to the west. I turned and shot at the bird, and at that second, saw Harry standing there. Didn't know he was there ...
Q: You had pulled the trigger and you saw him?
A: Well, I saw him fall, basically. It had happened so fast.
Q: What was he wearing?
A: He was dressed in orange, he was dressed properly, but he was also ... There was a little bit of a gully there, so he was down a little ways before land level, although I could see the upper part of his body when ... I didn't see it at the time I shot, until after I'd fired. And the sun was directly behind him — that affected the vision, too, I'm sure.
Q: Will it affect your attitude toward this pastime you so love in the future?
A: I can't say that. You know, we canceled the Sunday hunt. I said, look, I'm not — we were scheduled to go out again on Sunday and I said I'm not going to go on Sunday, I want to focus on Harry.
