Corpus Christi Caller-Times photographer (and avid quail hunter) George Gongora simulates the impact of Cheney’s shotgun on Mr. Harry Whittington
From today's papers; Unapologetic Response Shocks GOP... The WaPo... Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP - Public Statement On Shooting Urged By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, February 15, 2006; A01 Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials to press Cheney to publicly address the issue as early as today, several prominent Republicans said yesterday. The Republicans said Cheney should have immediately disclosed the shooting Saturday night to avoid even the suggestion of a coverup and should have offered a public apology for his role in accidentally shooting Harry Whittington, a GOP lawyer from Austin. Whittington was hospitalized Saturday night in Corpus Christi, Tex., and was moved back into the intensive-care unit after suffering an abnormal heart rhythm yesterday morning. "I cannot believe he does not look back and say this should have been handled differently," said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota who is close to the White House. Weber said Cheney "made it a much bigger issue than it needed to be." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021402137_pf.html Two from The Wall Street Journal - Possible Prosecution... From Jokes to Jitters February 14, 2006 3:54 p.m. Worries are mounting among Republicans about Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident after his hunting partner has a heart attack caused by birdshot from the mishap. Though news of Harry Whittington's heart attack quiets the flood of jokes about Cheney's misfire, it vexes party strategists who fear the accident will be a continuing distraction from the party's 2006 agenda. "It is drowning out all other news [and] has taken all the political energy out of the White House," http://online.wsj.com/public/articl...Z7HVwpnuIZ5F43vuqTMao_20070215.html?mod=blogs Fallout From Cheney Incident Besets White House By JOHN D. MCKINNON and GREG HITT February 15, 2006; Page A3 WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting incident became a bigger distraction for the White House when doctors said that the man he accidentally shot in Texas suffered a heart attack caused by a shotgun pellet. The development isn't likely to put the vice president in any legal peril, and the local district attorney said late yesterday that he has seen nothing so far to indicate charges are warranted. But whether the incident causes lasting political damage may yet depend on how Mr. Cheney responds, and whether it appears to the public that the vice president is being treated differently from other hunters involved in accidental shootings. http://online.wsj.com/public/articl...APJmP7StYyy0PUBPFl2Cs_20070215.html?mod=blogs
I'm waiting on bigtexxx to make a statement blasting Whitehouse press secretary Scott MacClellan for making a joke like he did when I made one. The idea that Cheney might have been drunk and that is why there was such a delay makes sense. There is no proof, but it does make the most sense of everything I've heard.
The Armstrong woman who made the statement to the press demurred that there had been a picnic that afternoon where people were drinking beer, but she said she didn't know if Cheney had been drinking.
i'm hearing in the news now (heard it hear first i believe) that 30 yards is much too far for bird shot to have gone so deeply in his body and such a tight pattern.
ive been hearing that since the incident occured and people have had a chance to look at the police report showing where the shots hit him. it had to be no more than 10 yards and as close as 10 feet. there is no way a piece of birdshot could go into his heart or artery from that far away. like i said, i think the dick dropped his gun and it discharged.
Another great column from one of my favorite writers, Molly Ivins. It has some insight many of you haven't seen elsewhere, and illustrates my point, which I make over and over, that Republicans are not some far-right, fundamentalist wacko group... just the bunch currently controlling the GOP. From the Austin American-Statesman: Ivins: Dick Cheney shot a thoroughly decent man Molly Ivins, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Of course the jokes are flying all over Texas — what's the fine for shooting a lawyer? — and so forth. Dick-Cheney-shooting-Harry-Whittington is fraught, as they say, with irony. It's not as though the ground in Texas is littered with liberal Republicans. I think the vice president winged the only one we've got. Not that I accuse Harry Whittington of being an actual liberal — only by Texas Republican standards, and that sets the bar about the height of a matchbook. Nevertheless, Whittington is seriously civilized, particularly on the issues of crime, punishment and prisons. He served on both the Texas Board of Corrections and on the bonding authority that builds prisons. As he has often said, prisons do not curb crime; they are hothouses for crime: "Prisons are to crime what greenhouses are to plants." In the day, whenever there was an especially bad case of new-ignoramus-in-the-Legislature — a "lock 'em all up and throw away the key" type — the senior members used to send the prison-happy, tuff-on-crime neophyte to see Whittington, a Republican after all, for a little basic education on the cost of prisons. When Whittington was chairman of the Texas Public Finance Authority, he had a devastating set of numbers on the demand for more, more, more prison beds. As Whittington was wont to point out, the only thing prisons are good for is segregating violent people from the rest of society, and most of them belong in psychiatric hospitals to begin with. The severity of sentences has no effect on crime. Texas still keeps the nonviolent, the r****ded, senior citizens, etc. locked up for ridiculous periods — all at taxpayer expense. If we could ever get to where we spend as much per pupil on education as we do per prisoner, this state would take off like a rocket. In 2003, we spend nearly $15,000 per prisoner, while average per-pupil spending was just over $8,000. I am not trying to make a big deal out of a simple hunting accident for partisan purposes — just thought it was a good chance to pay tribute to old Harry, a thoroughly decent man. However, I was offended by the never-our-fault White House spin team. Cheney adviser Mary Matalin said of her boss, "He was not careless or incautious (and did not) violate of any of the (rules). He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do." Of course he did, Ms. Matalin, he shot Harry Whittington. Which brings us to one of the many paradoxes of the Bush administration, which claims to be creating "the responsibility society." It's hard to think of a crowd less likely to take responsibility for anything they have done or not done than this bunch. They're certainly good at preaching responsibility to others — and blaming other people for everything that goes wrong on their watch. Of course the Cheney shooting was an accident. But is it an accident if your home and your life are destroyed by the flood following a hurricane? Especially if the flood was caused by failed levees, a government responsibility? Is it an accident when your manufacturing job gets shipped overseas and all you can find to replace it is a low-wage job at the big-box store with no health insurance, and your kid breaks his leg, and you can't pay the bill, so you have to declare bankruptcy under a new law that leaves you broke for good, with no chance of ever getting out of debt? Or was all of that caused by deliberate government policy? Cheney is much given to lecturing us about taking responsibility. When and where does societal responsibility come in? Cheney has a curious, shifting history on issues of blame and responsibility. He was vice chairman of the congressional committee that spent 11 months investigating the Iran-Contra affair and author of its minority report. As John W. Dean highlights in a recent essay, the 500-page majority report concluded the entire affair "was characterized by pervasive dishonesty and inordinate secrecy." But Cheney's report said the Reagan administration's repeated breaking of the law were "mistakes . . . were just that mistakes in judgment and nothing more." Those of you who saw Cheney's interview with Jim Lehrer last week may recall the passage on Darfur that ended with this: Lehrer: "It's still happening. There are now 2 million people homeless." Cheney: "Still happening, correct." Lehrer: "Hundreds of thousands of people have died, and — so you're satisfied the U.S. is doing everything it can do?" Cheney: "I am satisfied we're doing everything we can do." His head still tilts over more to the right when he lies. (Ivins is based in Austin.) http://www.statesman.com/search/content/editorial/stories/02/15ivins_edit.html Keep D&D Civil.
I think he was drunk--The Sheriff showed-up at the ranch becuase the Hospital reported the shooting. The Secret Service told the deputy to "Come back tomorrow"--are you KIDDING ME? Scenario, you and your boys go out drinking, come home and start shooting a round of Skeet. You, in your drunken state, pepper your buddy and the cops come to find out about the shooting. Buddy isn't gonna press charges, but the catch is you have 5-6 double Scotches and a six-pack in your blood. What to do? Easy, just tell the officer to please "come back tomorrow" and thats that! Simple huh?! Works EVERY time!
Yep! SS wouldn't let the cops interview Cheney for 14 hours. wouldabeen23 you think the docs did a blood alcohol test on Whittington? Wouldn't that be SOP for hunting accidents? But the larger question is... Does the Constitution and/or the congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force of 2001, give the President of the United States the legal authority, if he deems such a thing necessary in the interests of national security, to authorize the shooting of Harry Whittington in the face?
BTW Cheney is finally going to come out of hiding and be interviewed by Fox news @ 2PM. It won’t be live, it will be taped.
hahahaha--The AUMF also grants W superhero powers fo life along with the last golden ticket to Willy Wonka's. I don't know if they tested Whittington, good question. It would have been interesting if the Game Warden reported first, I don't think they would have taken the Secret Service's word for it to just "come back tomorrow".
Excerpt: Press conference on condition of lawyer accidently shot by Vice President While he's still in an intensive care unit, the doctors insisted that Whittington was recovering, and that it was normal to keep watch over a patient in such circumstances. They said that he was well enough that he might be doing some attorney work in his room. The doctors informed the press a few times that they would not respond to questions asked already, and got a little testy at points. When asked what medication the lawyer was currently receiving, one of the two doctors who spoke said that they're not "practicing medicine on tv." When asked if there was a chance that there could be more migration toward his heart, the response was that they were "one hundred percent satisfied where the bb is...is where it will remain." The doctors also wouldn't say how many bbs were still in Whittington's body. One reporter asked whether or not the White House was coordinating the doctors' press conference. The doctor said that that was a good question, then explained that since their physicians were responsible for the initial care then it was only "common courtesy" to keep the White House updated. Another wanted to know if Cheney had spoken to Whittington about his planned interview with FOX. The doctors didn't know the answer, and said that Whittington would be unable to even watch the broadcast because there was no television in his room. The last question of the press conference was whether or not Whittington's blood alcohol had ever been tested. The response: "No comment." http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Press_conference_on_condition_of_lawyer_0215.html
You would have approved Communist News Network...Perhaps cooper 180 could be the best with slanted neo-demo opinion and rhetorical interrogatories...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20...xIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA-- Alan Dershowitz: Dick Cheney's Delay Alan Dershowitz 2 hours, 9 minutes ago This belongs completely in the realm of speculation, but it is speculation based on my own experiences as a criminal lawyer. Why would a media-savvy and clever man like Dick Cheney delay notifying the press and the police about an accident when a) he knew it would eventually be covered by the press and b) he knew he would be criticized for delaying release of the story? 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. ADVERTISEMENT 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. 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. There are certainly other explanations for the 14 hour delay, but simply postponing the inevitable publication of a damaging story is not one of them. Nor is the fact that Cheney is, by nature, a secretive man. The burden of proof has now shifted to the Vice President to explain why he made this stupid, or very clever, decision. We're waiting for his explanation.
