Smokescreen

Sure, it was a craven move for Cheney, who hasn't had a press conference since 2002, to "come clean" in an interview with brown-nosing Brit Hume on Fox News. But the White House couldn't even get that right.

It was known yesterday afternoon that Cheney had admitted to having 'a beer' during the course of the interview. But that bit was left on the cutting room floor when the interview ran. As some have pointed out (Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz among them), what happens when an officer asks you if you've been drinking and you respond "I had a beer, officer." Probable cause, a sobriety test, etc. Which in turn begs the question of why the authorities weren't contacted until fourteen hours after the shooting.

This doesn't mean there was heavy drinking going on, it just makes the administration look bad. And Fox News wasn't about to let that happen.

On to to the clip. On Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room, the crusty Jack Cafferty once again proves himself to be the rarest of cable news animals-- a commentator who talks straight. Behold:

BLITZER: You still think he needs to do a full-scale news conference in front of all of the cameras, all of the reporters, and ask whatever they want?

CAFFERTY: That's never going to happen. But, I mean, running over there to the Fox network to -- I mean that's -- talk about seeking a safe haven. He's not going to get any high, hard ones from anybody at the F-word network. I think we know that.

And you might also check out this article sent my way by Vigil-Auntie. They don't give Olbermann his due, but the question of why Cafferty seems to be the only newsman on the 24/7 cable networks who is neither a waffling nancyboy or a partisan hack deserves more attention.