Cheney, Can’t See the Quail Through the Trees – Shoots Friend
by Pamela Leavey
Dick Cheney obviously needs some hunting lessons or perhaps a new pair of glasses?
Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
Harry Whittington, 78, was “alert and doing fine” after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.
Armstrong said Whittington was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
“The vice president didn’t see him,” she continued. “The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.”
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin says, “this is very bad news for the White House.” Poor Michelle, she’s worried about what people will say… Oh spare us the pity party Michelle, he’s not the saint you paint him to be.
UPDATE 2: It should be noted that the shooting was actually first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times however, Dick Cheney’s office “did not disclose the accident until nearly 24 hours after it happened.” It’s curious that the story was withheld from the news for nearly 24 hours… BradBlog has more here, including the fact that Whittington hired Cheney at Halliburton, is a known Bush Pioneer, and was member of Reagan’s FISA Board.
UPDATE 3: The BBC reports that “The local sheriff’s department is investigating the incident.” The LA Times reports “Cheney was legally hunting with a license he purchased in November.”
And, although ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, said the shots “broke the skin,” and Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride said Whittington is “doing fine and in good spirits” it should be noted that Whittington is actually in “stable condition in the intensive care unit.” What does that mean? Well… hospital administrator Peter Banko, said “Whittington was in the intensive care unit because his condition warranted it, but he didn’t elaborate.”
Inquiring minds really want to know WTF took so long in reporting this incident to the public? As Dem Daily reader Dave from Princeton points out in the comments:
First they had to make sure the guy was going to be alright (if he died would have required much more spin, maybe a terra alert), get their stories straight and get all their talking points out to GOP pols, fauxnews, talking heads and radio spewers…
UPDATE 4: From the Chicago Tribune… Slow (White House) trigger on Cheney
When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance, that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?
But when the vice president’s office, or the White House, delays in reporting a shooting like Saturday’s to the public via the media, it needlessly raises suspicions and questions of trust. And it may just further the impression held by many, rightly or wrongly, that the White House doesn’t place the highest premium on keeping the public fully and immediately informed.
UPDATE 5: Jeralyn at TalkLeft has more including “Will Cheney face charges over the shooting?”
Filed under: In The News, Republicans | Get Permalink or trackback |
Only took him two shots too. Said Cheney, “That old guy is faster than he looks!”
OOPS! By God Harry got peppered! Dick needs to go!
I say Michelle needs to be in on the next hunt
Donnie
Michelle doesn’t seem like the outdoors type. The only prey she stalks is democrats.
Maybe she needs to get out and try shooting something besides her mouth!!
Gee. I’d hate to see him trying to get an evil doing terrorist.
The fighting Democrats could show him a thing or two. So could John Kerry.
{{Teresa}}
{{{{Hiya, Buddy}}}}
Hey Teresa!
Missed you around here!
60 minutes doing a story now on war profiteering and the firm Custer Battles, who screwed up horribly on every contract, bilked the government for over $50 million and yet kept getting new contracts…
The Cheney’s are sick, evil people. It makes us all mad the way they poked fun of Kerry’s orange tan and hunting skills. Hyprocrites.
Dave
A Haliburton Co?
But as they said, firms like that are small potatoes and for example Halliburton over billed for over a $ billion, among other things. And GOP in congress repeatedly used strict party line votes to prevent anything from being done about it…
Not that this hasn’t all been common knowledge for years, well except in droolerville of course
You’d think one of these days enough Americans would get a clue and want to do something about these criminals but nope, the idiots keep voting for them and then bitch about the gubmint wasting their tax $ etc. Thank you sir may I have another!
1. It is a shame he wasn’t quail hunting with Ann Coulter.
2. Something is very wrong when Michelle Kwan pulls out of the Olympics and we hear about it immediately and the Vice President of the United States of America shoots a man and we find out the next day.
Pamela,
Didn’t hear the beginning but I’m almost positive they are not. I heard about Custer Battles first a couple years ago. I believe it was started by two ex GOP military guys not long ago, to get in on the GOP “war on terra” cash cow giveaway. Like a ton of little Co’s were the last few years. Just ask “Duke” Cunningham. All ya had to do was kick in a little cash to republican politicians and they’d throw a bunch of Defense Dept $ your way. It’s only our national security. Which they only care about for politics, far as I can tell.
Not like the most of the GOP in government appear to give a real crap about national defense or our service personnel. You’d think people would have figured that out decades ago. As far as I can tell, most only care about the service personnel for photo ops and defense $ for enriching themselves, friends and/or future employers. At least that’s what I deduced about 30 years ago…
Of course, for the last decade or so they haven’t even tried to hide those facts. People have been so brainwashed that the GOP is “strong on defense” (AKA huge Def budgets for war profiteering purposes) that the GOP doesn’t even have to pretend to hide it anymore. To most of the public robbing the treasury, as long as you say it is to protect the country, talking tough, scaring the masses and attacking your political enemies seems to relate to being strong on defense. Ya know, exactly like Bush is good on terra(which he is, if you’re a terrorist)
Sorry kids. Had to get a couple little rants out. I was stopped up. Feeling better now
Sandrakae,
First they had to make sure the guy was going to be alright(if he died would have required much more spin, maybe a terra alert), get their stories straight and get all their talking points out to GOP pols, fauxnews, talking heads and radio spewers…
Cheney hunts about just as well as he plans wars.
BW,
Yep you got that right. Actually shows the same concern. Like the rest of his admin, he just doesn’t give a crap. If yuo screw up you just blame the victim or anyone handly, preferably a Democrat or liberal
OH Yeah!! Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin would have been my choice for people to be on that trip
BW
I think you’re right about the time lag, except they probably worked in at least one focus group.
Then there’s the Guvenator’s mistake. Does Dick have a Texas hunting license?
Enquiring minds…
Ginny,
I bet your right about that. He probably didn’t have one. I doubt he would bother. Laws don’t apply to them, it would be beneath him. Though do you need a license on private property?
Ginny
Most likely hunting on private property would cover the lack of hunting license if that were the case. Besides, look what happened to Arnold when he was caught driving his motorcycle with out a license – nada!
I just updated the thread – LA Times reports Cheney had a license, AP says Whittington is in intensive care…
Why is every news item about Cheney delayed? How can we believe we’re getting the real story on anything this guy is up to?
Anyhoo…come over and cast a vote for the most annoying senator at my place:
nite swimming
Dick Cheney: not fit to shoot a rifle and not fit to be Vice President.
Just saying………………
Dartanyon
LOL! Not fit for many things it seems.
Hi Pamela. Missed you all, but I’ll be around cause things are getting interesting
This is on the heels of the absolutely incredible humiliation of Bush at the King funeral. They’re going down, finally.
They lost control of the news on this one.
Hey everyone, give the guy a break. It’s not surprising that he’d be distracted while hunting after the news on Libby’s defense strategy last week.
After all, if news came out which meant that there is a very good chance that you will wind up in prison, wouldn’t you be distracted?
The answer is yes, Ron. I would.
Ron
You’ll note in the thread above I suggested that Scooter should not go hunting with Dick. Dick is beyond distracted!
Teresa
Always so optimistic! The begining of the end… we hope!
Pamela. The end started a long time ago. These people are child’s play when it comes to power. I can’t even begin to list the mistakes they’ve made. They spent so many years building up to this time and then they royally blew it. Maintining power is very difficult as they have discovered. They intellectualized their coup but I never saw the organizational and administrative skill it takes to run a machine like this practically. In retrospect, you’ll see it. It’s been very frustrting for me to watch others fall for their bluff. It’s a big game and a lot of suckers all the way around have fallen for it.
It will be scandal after scandal now and the pre-election Iran scare will be revved up, but I hope people are wiser. These folks don’t have it. Absolute power takes great skill, secrecy, discipline, charisma, and a society much different from ours.
No system can function with corruption like this.
I understand how my comment below will be taken by a ‘winger, but…
When the news bit re: Cheney came on, both my husband and I cracked up. Without a word, he tivo’ed it back to replay, and we cracked up again.
You could say we needed the laugh. @;-)
For the ‘wingers, we weren’t laughing at the fact that a man was shot. We were laughing because, at this point, the actions of the Bushies are simply beyond ludicrous. “Truth IS stranger than fiction.”
“That Bush Pioneer finally earned his Purple Bandaid.”
“The Gang that (literally) couldn’t shoot straight.”
You know how a family sometimes starts laughing at the funeral of one of their own?
This is like that.
The funeral is the fact that ‘wingers not once, but twice, voted this corrupt, incompetent duo into power.
KJ
Thanks for passing on that laugh. I have to wonder if the guy really needs to be in intensive care or if this is VIP treatment.
Meanwhile, hunting on private land generally does not excuse you from a license. The animals are not yours and they have no concept of whose land they are on. The state Wildlife folks need info on the number of animals killed so they can adjust seasons, etc.
On the other hand, hunting on private land offers a better opportunity to “not get around” to getting a license and get away with it. Especially if you aren’t driving down the road with a carcass tied to your truck roof.
I think the NRA should use Dick as a poster guy for safe hunting classes, “If the VP of the USA, can shoot someone by accident, what makes you think you wouldn’t?”
I’m going to go color some bandaids purple.
Quails 1, hunters 0.
News items said it was the first time DICK and Harry hunted together. IF I were Harry, I’d make it the last time.
SCUD Cheney!
chalk it up to Cheney’s thumper skipping a beat when he got startled by the second covey
Whittington needed a bullet-proof vest not a blaze orange hunting vest. The man gets my vote for NRA spokesperson!
i1