Listen, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I don't think VP Cheney shot his friend on purpose or anything. But the Bush administration has been a little to slick in their timing of press releases in this young week to believe it was just a coincidence. It may be good-old-fashioned media maneuvering, but I think they're hoping we won't notice a couple important pieces of un-flattering news.

This weekend, the White House waited almost an entire day to the release news that Vice President Cheney accidentally shot a friend while hunting in Texas -- AFTER the Sunday morning talk shows and THE SAME DAY that Bush actually admits that a New York Times/Time photo of him and Abramoff is real (they said previously that they had no record he had attended this meeting.) They had to know this bizarro news would push out talk of the Abramoff photo. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11310507 /
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/1...

Then today, FEMA announces they are making "wide-ranging" reforms, the SAME DAY that they stop paying for hotel rooms for Katrina victims, some of which have not yet received benefits.

http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturi...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles... /

Stay tuned to see what they'll come up with this Wednesday . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics...