Triggergate Reloaded

I know that I overdid it yesterday, but my immersion in the Dick Cheney shooting is not without intent: I want to point out how easy it is to churn out fodder for readers of any ilk. It is easy to ridicule, as easy as it is to flatter and blindly praise. Dick Cheney is no friend of mine, nor is anyone in the White House (including the press corps). But the frenzy around this story, entirely media driven (the media are ticked off!), is worth noticing with eyes wide open.

This is how distorted things are: Right now, as I type, radio talk show host Jim Braude of the Eagan & Braude show on 96.9 FM in Boston, has opined, with passion, that a local murder, where a British citizen kills his wife and daughter with one shot in their beautiful Massachusetts home, is LESS important, by far, than an accidental non-lethal hunting accident which involves the Vice President of the United States. Considering that the British citizen and young husband fled the country, returning to England; that he went through an extradition hearing (he waived extradition); that Scotland Yard was involved; that this is considered LESS important than an accident is a sorry bit of news. Add to this the national and international fascination with the "Entwistle Murders;" that Mr. Entwistle is the new Scott Peterson, and one discovers a story that is powerful, disturbing and wildly relevant: What is leading young, good-looking men of moderate success to kill their way out of their wedding vows?

Further Triggergate scandal-mongering is imminent, now that Dick Cheney is finally going to speak formally to a reporter about his misdeed. But the scandal is not that Cheney is speaking; it's that he is now speaking the wrong way. For instead of speaking to every reporter in the press pool, he is speaking (the shock!) exclusively to Fox News' Brit Hume. Shame, shame, shame.

Right now, former VP-candidate John Edwards, speaking via telephone on the Eagan & Braude show, has just said that the accident is "typical," typical of the sort of secrecy with which the Administration serves this country. (Edwards also just said that he believes that the Democrats need to assume the "moral leadership" of this country. It's all about morals, you see.)

Oiks! John Edwards, right now: "I don't believe in the same country as the country George Bush believes in."

So, this is the lesson: there are indeed TWO Americas, Bush's and Edwards'. Hence, I can understand why someone like Edwards takes umbrage with charges that his criticisms of a sitting, war-time President are unpatriotic, for Edwards is not criticizing America, he's criticizing that "other" country, the country that George Bush believes in. Edwards' country is the real America. It is there that his patriotism resides.

Talk about a unifier!