It occurred to me this morning that the story of Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner in the head with a shotgun is important because of what it illustrates about this administration but even more importantly what it illustrates about the people of this administration.

Those of us who have been critical of the bush administration from day one have seen their greater failings, from the failure to trust our electoral system to actually work as intended to the failures of Katrina to the failures in Iraq to the failures in managing our budget and on and on, as both political and personal failures. In many cases blaming those failures on more than just incompetence but on personal callousness and heartlessness.

But a significant number of Americans have rejected those characterizations and often shut out the message from our side by accepting the spin that it is all just personal animus rather than an indication of an understanding of the reality of this Presidency.

But this incident has illustrated quite clearly to the American people the callousness of this administration. There is something noble in making unpleasant decisions and doing unpleasant things to further the greater good or to protect the nation. The secrecy and unwillingness of this administration to come clean on so many issues related to Iraq or domestic spying or Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo have been excused because “it needs to be done” and “they aren’t evil men they have to make hard decisions”.

But now, rather than just making difficult decisions that cost American soldiers and Iraqi citizens their lives by the thousands, a key player in both the decision-making process and the secrecy that surrounds it has personally and carelessly shot someone in the head with a shotgun and then refused to even publicly admit it. He has countenanced his underlings while they blamed the poor guy who got shot for the whole thing and the cult followers he has around him have dutifully followed along.

But the citizens of this country know that such an event can happen even as they realize that no amount of spin is going to change the fact that it was Cheney’s fault and no one else’s. Had he issued a statement immediately, had his office reported this widely and openly and he had apologized and taken responsibility for it, the public would likely have forgiven him his carelessness.

But this administration never takes responsibility for its most egregious actions and more than just being their particular brand of hard-nosed politics it really is a personal failing, an arrogance of evil men who believe their own reality is the only one that matters and the rest of us are just disposable players in that reality.

Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake” and they led her to the guillotine. Dick Cheney says (through his surrogates “He should have said something before I shot him”. It will be interesting to see what personal price he pays for that arrogance.

Update:  Word is now that Cheney is finally talking…to Fox News in a carefully controlled friendly environment rather than a news conference.  Let the propaganda parade begin!