Few events are as tailor made for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show as Dick Cheney’s accidental shooting of 78-year-old Harry Whittington, a moment that had Jon Stewart exclaiming "Thank you Jesus!"

Stewart, via Crooks & Liars:

 

Don’t let your kids go hunting with the Vice President. I don’t care what kind of lucrative contracts they’re trying to land or energy regulations they’re trying to get lifted. He’ll shoot them in the face.

 

Though there were more than a few bird jokes, the show’s Vice Presidential Firearms Mishap Expert Rob Corddry invoked an eerily similar Administration defense:

 

Jon, tonight the Vice President is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. Now according to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be the 78 year old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists-he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face.

 

Corddry continued:

 

He [Cheney] believes the world is a better place for spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington’s face.

 

 

In a post 9/11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.