To the Editor:
The most remarkable aspect of the recent vice-presidential debacle is that the press is dogging the White House about minutiae.
The shooting was a personal tragedy for Harry Whittington, of course, but it was also an accident and totally unrelated to Dick Cheney's job as vice president.
I'd be glad if the press suddenly rediscovered its journalistic diligence and backbone, but let's hope reporters use them to ask the administration tough questions about Scooter Libby and Valerie Wilson, Halliburton contracts, communication and response during Hurricane Katrina or the mounting death toll of inadequately outfitted soldiers in Iraq.
We don't need to know when, exactly, the White House learned that Mr. Cheney is a lousy quail hunter. Keep your eye on the ball.
Mike Boyce
Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 14, 2006