Jane at Firedoglake:

Boozehound Cheney was drinking all day. He went hunting without a license and shot an old man in the face. Wouldn't talk to Johnny Law until he sobered up. Got the sheriff and the Texas Parks and Wildlife folks to cover for him, hid from the public for four days then finally ran to the warm embrace of Fox News. Even Jack Cafferty says that's kinda like Bonnie interviewing Clyde.

Alan Dershowitz:

A simple cost/benefit analysis suggests that he (or those advising him) must have believed that there was more to be gained than lost by a 14 hour delay that would eventually be made public. It is likely, therefore, that something happened during that 14 hour period which was worth the negative costs of the delay.

What is the most likely thing to happen during a 14 hour delay that is worth the negative publicity? One possibility is that it takes approximately that period of time for alcohol to dissipate in the body and no longer be subject to accurate testing. It is fairly common for people involved in alcohol-related accidents to delay reporting them until the alcohol has left the body. There is no hard evidence that this is what happened here, but we are entitled to a better explanation.

And why won't the hospital release the results of Whittington's blood alcohol?

We should be told whether Vice President Cheney's victim had alcohol in his system when he was taken to the hospital. Was there any alcohol at or near the hunting area? Were any in the hunting party carrying flasks (which is apparently common among hunters)? What was Cheney doing just before he went hunting? Did anyone in the hunting party have a drink? We do know that Cheney had two drunk driving convictions when he was in his early 20s, but he has apparently been clean since then.

From Attytood:

....there's a chance that even one beer would be bad for a man with
Cheney's health history. Two of the most common types of treatments for
heart-attack patients, ACE inhibitors and beta blockers, can cause
dizziness, drowsiness, blurred vision and impaired judgment in a patient
that also drinks alcohol.

Meanwhile, Arianna is onto the Karl Rove-Karen Johnson-Katharine Armstrong angle.