Editorial: Cheney just loves secrets

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 | 12:32 p.m.

By now the entire world knows that Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, attorney Harry Whittington, while hunting for quail on a Texas ranch Saturday. Whittington, who was hit in the face, neck and chest with buck shot, is in stable condition, and it appears that he will fully recover.

Adding to the bizarre circumstances, it took the White House almost 24 hours to say that the accident happened. It wasn't until a Texas newspaper reported the incident on its Web site on Sunday, and other reporters started making calls to confirm the account, that the vice president's aides would even acknowledge it had happened.

Why the delay? White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who said that President Bush was told on Saturday what had happened, said that Cheney thought the owner of the ranch where he was hunting for the weekend should be the one to tell what occurred. So the vice president of the United States - the man a heartbeat away from the presidency - decides to leave it to his host at the ranch to break the news that he accidentally shot another man, sending him to the intensive care unit of a hospital?

This failure shouldn't be all that surprising since the vice president is notorious for keeping the public ignorant about what truly goes on at the White House. The Bush White House, spurred on by Cheney, has routinely refused to make public many government meetings and records that used to be considered open by past administrations.

If the vice president and the president believe that shooting another man isn't important enough to let the public in on right away, imagine what other information they are keeping secret.