Cheney Skips White House Holiday Bash To Hunt

Cheney Skips White House Holiday Bash To Hunt

Missing from Monday night's black-tie White House holiday ball for all three branches of government was one very prominent official of the executive branch: Vice President Dick Cheney. He was away on a life-threatening mission - at least for the brave souls who joined him.

Members of Congress flocked to the White House in their tuxedos and gowns for well-spiked eggnog, gourmet nosh (the crab cakes and chicken fingers were big hits) and photos with President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. And some of them noticed that while the Bushes stood for hours on end saying "cheese" with hundreds of lawmakers, justices, Cabinet officials and select staffers - Cheney was nowhere to be found.

Was Cheney being a Scrooge, or what? Or maybe he was just taking it easy after having electrical shock therapy for his irregular heart beat.

Some wondered if he was off sulking about a new National Intelligence Estimate that contradicted the administration's campaign to depict Iran's nuclear development as a grave threat.

But no. It turns out Cheney was off enjoying his favorite pastime: hunting.
Asked why Cheney skipped the White House bash, the vice president's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, told us he was in Arkansas.

Doing what? "He was hunting," she said. (Woo-hoo! A Cheney hunting story!) And who dared go with him? we asked, thinking of poor Harry Whittington, the lawyer who Cheney shot in the face last year. (We knew Cheney wasn't with his hunting pal Antonin Scalia, because Scalia and several other Supreme Court justices were spotted in the long line to have their photos taken with POTUS and FLOTUS Monday night.)

"Personal friends, I didn't ask," McBride told us.

Cheney went duck hunting in Arkansas just last month when he served as guest of honor at a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Arkansas. (No casualties were reported.) Unlike the free photos with President and Mrs. Bush at the White House Christmas party, it cost $1,000 per person to have a photo taken with Cheney at the Arkansas GOP event.

Well, if the hunt for a nuclear weapons program has been set back, at least Cheney has ducks to hunt.

By Mary Ann Akers | December 4, 2007; 4:44 PM ET
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Please, oh please let Hillary go hunting with dead-eye Dick ........