The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a “hunter’s judgment factor.” No other secondary factors were found to have played a role. [Link]

Well nice shooting, Mr. Vice President. I’m intrigued to see that the White House finds humor in this hunting accident. I don’t find it amusing in the least. Oh, I admit I thought it was funny at first, just because it involves “The Dick,” but now that the victim – who’s 78 years old – has bird shot in his heart, it’s no laughing matter.

I imagine the guy didn’t know what hit him. Being a long time Republican, he’s probably felt that way for several years. He’s had to watch the leadership of his party take it in a whole new direction, from fiscal conservatism to waves of massive overspending; from a philosophy of strong defense to one of preemptive war; from a small, well-defined and constrained Federal government to one run amok, grown massive by gorging on the hormonal effluence of its own hubris.

I think I know how he feels. I remember when it was safe to be a Democrat. You see, I’m not really a liberal. I’m a moderate and a populist. I used to find things to respect and admire on both sides of the aisle. I believe in states rights, clean television, that the universe was created by God, and kids should be allowed to pray in school. I believe that we should all pitch in to take care of the poor and needy. I believe that what you do in your home is none of the government’s damn business. I believe that taxes should support the arts. I believe in unionized labor.

I’ve always felt it was safe for me to lean to the left, and support a morally expansive – ok, you can call it liberal – view of public ethics, because there was a balance on the other side. There were conservatives to help keep the government from getting out of control. Where did they go? Spending has gone completely nuts under George W. Bush, and none of it for anything good. The government is growing like Godzilla on steroids and Wheaties, and we’re not innovating or inventing, not building schools or hospitals or new freeways, or jobs. I feel like some of us who’ve been leaning to the left have to lean back the other way, to keep the whole thing from crashing over. And if we don’t capsize and sink, where will we be? Outsourced, a second rate power. An emaciated weakling, hairless and shriveled, with giant fists.

Which brings us back to The Dick and his unseemly love of guns and violence. Let it go down in the history books that while America skated along like an M-1 tank on a frozen pond, our leaders had no place in their hearts for peace. Nothing was spared: not the people, the land, the air, or even the birds.