Gaze upon the amazing talking weasel!

I was just listening to Hugh Hewitt's radio show on the way home from work, and I heard the following remarkable exchange he had (the transcript is from Radio Blogger) with former West Wing producer Lawrence O'Donnell, who insinuated in a Huffington Post entry that Cheney was drunk when the now-famous hunting accident occurred. Except that he didn't:

HH: But you think the Secret Service knew he [Cheney] was drunk and protected him?

LO: No. Hey, stop lying about what I'm saying. Get this straight. Lawrence O'Donnell has no idea, and has never suggested whether or not the Vice President was drunk. I've never said it, and I never will, because we will never know...

HH: Well now, let's pause on that, Lawrence. Let's pause on that.

LO: ...because the Vice President made sure that you weren't going to be able to put a breathalyzer up to his mouth. He made sure of it.

HH: You said we've never...you said just now, you've never suggested that, but of course, the first line in your post is, the L.A. Times is edging closer to the most likely reason for the 18 hour delay.

LO: It is the most likely reason.

HH: That's not suggesting he was drunk?

LO: It is most likely that Ted Kennedy was drunk on Chappaquiddick. That's most likely, but I don't know it.

HH: But Lawrence, you just said you didn't suggest it. In fact, you just...

LO: It's not a fact. A likelihood is not a fact, Hugh. Wake up. You're better than this.

HH: Lawrence, you just said you never suggested he was drunk.

LO: I've never suggested that he was drunk, no. I've suggested it's a likelihood. [emphasis mine]

HH: And suggesting that he was drunk, and a likelihood that he's drunk...

LO: Hugh, you know the difference between a fact and a likelihood.

This is the kind of thinking you get from the people who rallied behind the man who famously pondered what the meaning of the word "is" is. O'Donnell never suggested that Cheney was drunk (even when he wrote, "I have never gone hunting with ultra-rich Republicans on a Saturday afternoon, but I have seen them tailgating at Ivy League football games, so it's hard for me to believe that any of their Saturday lunches are alcohol free.") but suggested it was "a likelihood." Riiiiiiight. You can't trust your lying eyes.

What do you have to do to get a Dem to own up to something they've actually said or written? Really, I'd like to know.

Update: Via Ace, now some other Huffyposter is insinuating that the whole thing is being covered up because Cheney is having an affair with the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland. Unless he's just saying the affair is "a likelihood," that is.