With civil war breaking out in Iraq and Bush selling our ports to the highest bidder, I realize that dwelling on Cheney shooting an old man in the face might be indiscreet. But I wanted to make some observations about the witness reports The Smoking Gun has posted on its site.

Likkered Up

Several people have commented on the non-denial denials of how drunk the party was that afternoon. Katharine who continues her practice of completely unreliable reporting by stating the date of the accident as February 12th, not the 11th. The woman who first said there was no likker then said there might have been now says,

to the best of my knowledge there was no alcohol involved.

Katharine’s sister Sarita at first didn’t say anything about likker. Then she thinks better of it and provides a supplement to her first statement:

To my knowledge, none of the members of my shooting group the afternoon of Feburary 11, 2006, at Armstrong Ranch consumed any alcoholic beverage ….To the best of my knowledge, alcohol was not a factor in the accidental shooting of Mr. Whittington.

Lots of "to the best of my knowledge" statements coming from the owners of the ranch. (Though I gotta say, Sarita’s and Katharine’s statements look like the could have compared notes. Which is I guess what you might do while sitting in a car 100 yards away from an event you claim to be an eyewitness to.)

Pamela Willeford says no one was drinking in the field.

There was no alcohol consumed during the afternoon of thehunt in the field. I did consume a glass of wine at lunch, 4 to 4 1/2hours earlier.

Willeford doesn’t say, though, whether anyone was drinking in the jeep, oron the road, or anywhere else. They send these Ambassadors to diplomatic-speak school,you know.