HOWARD KURTZ has a big Cheney roundup.

It’s possible to make fun of the press’s self-involvement here, and it’s hilarious to hear — as I did in the car on the way home just now — Hillary Clinton complaining about this Administration’s secretiveness, as if we’d forgotten the health care task force, the Rose Law Firm billing records, etc. But nonetheless, Cheney screwed up bigtime.

Anyone can have an accident, and absent, you know, actual facts there’s not much to say about the actual shooting (though as Kurtz notes, that hasn’t stopped some people from proposing theories as if they were fact). But they’ve played to everybody’s characterization of them, and it’s the classic political mistake of not responding quickly.

That said, it’s also a classic example of the press’s instinct for the capillary. This is getting Natalee Holloway level coverage, when there’s lots of more important stuff going on.