There was Plame-gate. There was Abu Graib. There was Downing Street. There was Katrina. There was illegal spying.
But some astute people think that the shot Dick Cheney took at a pen-raised quail on Saturday — that landed in a companion’s face — is going to the be the story that comes to epitomize the Bush-Cheney administration as, truly, in every sense of the words, “The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight”.
It’s because this story is a perfect metaphor for this administration’s foreign and domestic policy. It says everything you need to know about Dick Cheney personally, and the way this entire administration operates.
And the press does this all the time: they run with little things that display flaws in character: Al Gore’s “Internet” quote to highlight his weakness for exaggeration; Kerry’s “Voted for it before I voted against it” to highlight his weakness for equivocation.
In this case, we have Cheney and the entire Bush Administration foreign and domestic policy in a nutshell. Especially in Iraq and Katrina.
Read the whole thing for maximux satisfaction.