The story is coming out in dribbles, but it’s coming out: Cheney had been drinking before he shot Whittington.

The first leak came when ranch owner Katherine Armstrong, who initially claimed there was no alcohol, let slip later that there was beer, but she didn’t know anything about it. The comment appeared on the MSNBC web site, and was soon mysteriously erased from the site, in a move that MSNBC still has not explained (that darned liberal media!). But the damage was done, the beans were spilled.

Then, when Cheney finally made a public statement–cowardly enough, not by a general press conference, but by talking to pal Brit Hume on the “F-word network” (Jack Cafferty’s phrasing), where he was sure to be treated with kid gloves. In that interview, he fessed up to drinking (sort of), but attempted to blunt the sting of the fact by claiming it was hours before the incident, and then he kind of denied that there had been drinking.

However, so far Cheney and the White House have lied about and attempted to play down just about everything about this incident, so there’s little doubt that Cheney is still not giving us the whole truth here. It has also been pointed out that Cheney’s meds may have also played a factor, amplifying the effect of alcohol.

One thing for certain: the reason for Cheney hiding from the police and the press and withholding the story until the next day becomes far less a mystery and far more a certainty.

So the question now is, where will it go from here? If Whittington dies, what will happen? One thing I can say with confidence, Cheney will never spend a day in jail. And the irony of all of this is that this is no doubt one of Cheney’s lesser misdeeds. But hey, whatever rings the bell.

Update: Cheney “accepts blame” and Bush is “satisfied” with it. Well, I’m glad that that’s all settled. Now we can ignore it and let Cheney get off scot free.