It was bound to happen. Vice President Dick Cheney has done more than just shoot off his mouth. On a quail hunting trip in Texas on Saturday, Cheney inadvertently shot a fellow hunter, spraying him in the face and chest with shotgun pellets. While the injuries to the 78-year-old man were not life-threatening, this “accident� offers further proof that the Vice President is a dangerous man, who recklessly wields power. Sarah Brady, Chair of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, offered these words upon hearing of this incident: “I’ve thought Cheney was scary for a long time. Now, I know I was right to be nervous.�

We all have a right and a reason to be nervous. Never mind the fact that Cheney’s top aide, Scooter Libby, is under indictment in the Plamegate scandal and that, just this past week, it was reported that Libby had testified before a grand jury that he was “authorized by his superiors� (hmm, now who might that be?) to disclose classified information to reporters. Never mind that the Vice President appears to wield so much influence with the President that many legitimately question who is really in charge at the White House. Never mind that Cheney is the worst kind of “war profiteer� and continues to drum up support for a war that most Americans now feel was a mistake—although, granted, the VP’s chums at Halliburton might feel otherwise. Never mind all that.

What truly matters is that the Vice President’s complete and reckless disregard for anyone but himself and his cronies has led to the deaths of thousands in Iraq and has set the world and this country on course for a generation of violence and conflict, not to mention environmental depredation and financial ruin. The man is dangerous and amoral. So is his “boss.� As suggested recently by Ralph Nader (and many others): “Both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should resign. They have disgraced their office and bled the nation. They have shattered the public trust in so many serious ways that will only become worse in the coming months.�