They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity

The White House Press Corps has been in high dudgeon over the most regrettable hunting accident involving Vice President Cheney.

The majority of Americans understand that this was an accident, it happened during a private excursion involving friends, and while informing the public earlier wouldn't have hurt anything, sober adults realize that the Republic is not going to fall over this issue.

Yet, the White House Press Corps have been chomping away at Press Secretary Scott McClellan's ankles. Soon his femurs will be mere stumps.

A press briefing on February 9 involved some of most important issues of the day. The NSA surveillance program, Iraq, Darfur, India, the Iranian nuclear program.

Yet, Monday, after the news came out over the weekend, here's the very first question from Monday's press briefing.

That's all I've got to begin with, so I'll be glad to go to your questions. Terry.

Q Scott, do you think that the shooting accident involving the Vice President on Saturday should have been disclosed to the public on Saturday?

Tha press conference went on for about 6,000 words on the Cheney incident. Then, the attack puppies in the press corps deigned to devote 1,200 words to other matters of the day, before coming right back to the Cheney incident. The press conference finished up with a few hammer blows over Hurricane Katrina.

Today, Tuesday. The press corps, having got it out of their system, went back to the serious matters of the day, right? Ahem.

Right out of the chute, the press went to the Cheney incident.

The first part of the conference devoted about 1,800 words to the hunting accident and the White House reponse.

There were two questions on other matters, before coming back to Cheney. For the remainder of the press conference there were questions about other matters, with questions about Cheney mixed in throughout.

The Democrats on the Hill have been no better.

Asked at a press conference for her reaction about how the White House has handled the incident, US Senator Hillary Clinton called the Bush administration's failure to be more forthcoming "troubling."

"A tendency of this administration -- from the top all the way to the bottom -- is to withhold information ... to refuse to be forthcoming about information that is of significance and relevance to the jobs that all of you do, and the interests of the American people," Clinton said.

"Putting it all together, going back years now, there's a pattern and it's a pattern that should be troubling," she said at a press conference calling for a more robust federal response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

The former first lady continued: "The refusal of this administration to level with the American people on matters large and small is very disturbing, because it goes counter to the way our constitutional democracy ... is supposed to work."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid at a press conference Tuesday said the secretive tendency goes beyond Cheney, pervading the entire Bush White House.

"I think the reason it took the vice president a day to talk about this is part of the secretive nature of this administration," the top Senate Democrat said. "They keep things pretty close to the chest."

"I think it's time the American people heard from the vice president, in a real meeting just like we're having here," said Reid, who called the George W. Bush presidency "the most secretive administration in modern history."

"In the last many, many decades, there's no administration more secretive than this," he said.

Have the Democrats stopped hiring political consultants? Is no one telling them how foolish they look to the American public in flogging a story the American public understand is just a sad accident?

How petty and snide they look in using this an accident as "proof" the Bush Administration would bulldoze our civil rights into a pit if they could?

I'll say it again. Go ahead, Dhimmicrats. Keep trying to figure out why the American people do not trust you on serious matters like our national security.

Here's some advice. Have a level-headed, measured response to accidents like this. Act like adults who understand the emotions involved when someonce accidentally wings a friend, and you'll be amazed at how much more willing people are to look to you for guidance on matters that truly require cool heads.

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Tony Blankley holds up a mirror to the MSM, and it's a wonder it doesn't crack.