Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter

[Heath]

Cheney Apparently Breaks Key Hunting Rule

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney apparently broke the No. 1 rule of hunting: Be sure of what you're shooting at. He also violated Texas game law by failing to buy a hunting stamp.

Cheney wounded fellow hunter Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest Saturday, apparently because he didn't see Whittington approaching as he fired on a covey of quail in Texas.

Hunting safety experts interviewed Monday agreed it would have been a good idea for Whittington to announce himself — something he apparently didn't do, according to a witness. But they stressed that the shooter is responsible for avoiding other people.

"It's incumbent upon the shooter to assess the situation and make sure it's a safe shot," said Mark Birkhauser, president-elect of the International Hunter Education Association and hunter education coordinator in New Mexico. "Once you squeeze that trigger, you can't bring that shot back."

The Parks and Wildlife Department said Cheney and Whittington will be given warning citations for violating game law by not having an upland game bird stamp, a requirement that went into effect in September. Cheney had a $125 nonresident hunting license, the vice president's office said Monday night in a statement, and has sent a $7 check to cover the cost of the stamp.

Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not commented publicly about the accident. He avoided reporters by leaving an Oval Office meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan before the press was escorted in.

President Bush was told about Cheney's involvement in the accident shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday — about an hour after it occurred — but the White House did not disclose the accident until Sunday afternoon, and then only in response to press questions. Press secretary Scott McClellan said he did not know until Sunday morning that Cheney had shot someone.

Facing a press corps upset that news had been withheld, McClellan said, "I think you can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job."

Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the ranch where the shooting occurred, said she told Cheney on Sunday morning that she was going to inform the local paper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She said he agreed, and the newspaper reported it on its Web site Sunday afternoon.

Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said that about an hour after Cheney shot Whittington, the head of the Secret Service's local office called the Kenedy County sheriff to report the accident. "They made arrangements at the sheriff's request to have deputies come out and interview the vice president the following morning at 8 a.m. and that indeed did happen," Zahren said.

At least one deputy showed up at the ranch's front gate later in the evening and asked to speak to Cheney but was turned away by the Secret Service, Zahren said. There was some miscommunication that arrangements had already been made to interview the vice president, he said.

Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy sheriff for Kenedy County, said the report had not been completed Monday and that it was being handled as a hunting accident, although he would not comment about what that meant they were investigating.

He said his department's investigation had found that alcohol was not a factor in the shooting, but he would not elaborate about how that had been determined. The Texas Parks and Wildlife hunting accident report also said neither Cheney nor Whittington appeared to be under the influence of intoxicants or drugs.

Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney in the Texas capital of Austin, was in stable condition at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial and was moved from intensive care to a "step-down unit" Monday. Doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.

Armstrong said the accident occurred toward the end of the hunt, as darkness was encroaching and they were preparing to go inside. Whittington was retrieving from tall grass a bird he had shot.

Cheney and another hunter, Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, moved on to another covey of quail — Armstrong estimated it was roughly 100-150 yards away — and Cheney fired on a bird just as Whittington rejoined them. She said Whittington was in tall grass and thick brush about 30 yards away, which made it difficult for Cheney to see him, although both men were wearing bright-orange safety vests. She said Whittington made a mistake by not vocally announcing that he had walked up to rejoin the hunting line.

Armstrong said she saw Cheney's security detail running toward the scene. "The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem," she told The Associated Press.

She said Cheney stayed "close but cool" while the agents and medical personnel treated Whittington, then took him away via ambulance to the hospital. Later, the hunting group sat down for dinner while Whittington was being treated, receiving updates from a family member at the hospital. Armstrong described Cheney's demeanor during dinner as "very worried."

Duane Harvey, president of the Wisconsin Hunter Education Instructors Association, said if Whittington had made his presence known "that would have been a polite thing to do." But, he added, "it's still the fault upon the shooter to identify his target and what is beyond it."

Despite all the safety tips and training, hunting accidents are an unfortunate part of the sport. In Texas, there were 30 accidents and two hunting deaths last year, according to the state Parks and Wildlife Department. National figures kept by the International Hunter Education Association show 744 shooting accidents, with 74 deaths, in 2002, the last year for which figures were available. Twenty-six accidents involving quail hunting were reported.

The association estimates there are 15.7 million hunters who will spend about 250 million days hunting in the United States this year.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, said the accident wouldn't keep him from going on a bipartisan hunt with Cheney. "I would be proud to hunt with the vice president — cautious, but proud," he told reporters.

___

On the Net:

The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

___
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060214...hBqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[Beowulf]

*on a future hunting trip*


(Cheney)--Hello? I just shot shot Bush! It was an accident! What do I do??
(SS Agent)--Take it easy, we will be there soon. First, make sure he is dead.
...BANG!...
(Cheney)---Okay, now what?

Heh heh heh heh.

 

[Steel X]

"Press secretary Scott McClellan said he did not know until Sunday morning that Cheney had shot someone."
bullshit.

"Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not commented publicly about the accident."
experienced? ah plez! if he was really any experienced at all then he should've know what the hell he was shooting at!

"Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy sheriff for Kenedy County, said the report had not been completed Monday and that it was being handled as a hunting accident."
Oh sure! they are letting him go just just because he's a big fat ugly dumb vice president.

"Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney in the Texas capital of Austin, was in stable condition at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial and was moved from intensive care to a "step-down unit" Monday. Doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them."
those doctors dont seem to be doing much help on the man who was shot.

"Armstrong said the accident occurred toward the end of the hunt, as darkness was encroaching and they were preparing to go inside. Whittington was retrieving from tall grass a bird he had shot."
If he can't see anything then dont fucking shoot!

"Armstrong described Cheney's demeanor during dinner as "very worried."
whatever. like I said above, if he cant see anything then dont shoot or else you fuck it up and look at what happened.

"Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, said the accident wouldn't keep him from going on a bipartisan hunt with Cheney. "I would be proud to hunt with the vice president — cautious, but proud," he told reporters."

oooookay...then perhas he should wear a bulletproof vest before he goes hunting with him.

 

[Reiko]

Maybe cheney flipped out and thought the guy was osama bin laden.

 

[Tousi]

Yes bbnt was talking about the President.

No he wasn't, Heath. Normally he does say things like this but THIS one time, he meant you. LOL!

 

[Mookie]

Col. Jessep Goes A-Hunting

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; A15

I told you people Dick Cheney was dangerous.

Let's all wish a full and speedy recovery for Harry Whittington, the man Cheney accidentally shot on Saturday while they were out in the Texas boonies hunting quail. As for the trigger-happy vice president, let's hope he takes this unfortunate episode as a hint to pack up his shotgun and go home. Lord knows he's done enough.

The man is out of control.

Then again, out-of-control is the way this whole administration operates: Ready, fire, aim. Global war on terrorism, global war on poultry, what's the difference? You see something moving, shoot it.

Sorry, Harry, my bad.

It's been clear for some time that Cheney came to office with a revanchist agenda, and he has pushed so hard in his campaign to assert autocratic powers for the White House that even his allies on Capitol Hill have begun pushing back. No wonder, given the way he treats them. On electronic spying, Cheney has essentially told Congress that if any members would like to discuss checks and balances, they're welcome to talk to the hand.

His uncompromising drill-and-guzzle position on energy makes a lot of oil industry executives sound like tree-huggers. When the subject turns to measures that could actually begin to lead this country toward energy independence, such as conservation and alternative fuels, Cheney begins checking his watch and barely tries to stifle his yawns. But let someone raise the prospect of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which couldn't even begin to slake America's energy thirst, and he lights up with such glee that it's impossible not to think of Mr. Burns on "The Simpsons."

Conservation sounds like one of those sissified foreign ideas. Drilling, now that's what America is all about -- at least the America that spends its weekends on a 50,000-acre ranch in south Texas with a bunch of fellow millionaires, shooting at quail.

Typically, Cheney's office didn't bother to tell anyone for more than 18 hours that the vice president of the United States had shot someone. A vice presidential shooting doesn't happen every day, and I, for one, would appreciate being informed whenever the man who's just a heartbeat away from the presidency peppers a 78-year-old attorney with birdshot. But Cheney apparently is taking his cues from Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men," the ultrapatriotic Col. Nathan Jessep: "You can't handle the truth."

Cheney seems to believe that we want to know far too much about what our government is up to. He doesn't have to tell us who came to the White House and engineered the administration's "Happy Days" energy policy; he doesn't have to tell us whom the National Security Agency is spying on or how it's doing it; he doesn't have to tell us anything about the conduct of the war on terrorism that this administration is waging in our names. Anyone who leaks information to try to keep us informed, such as the unnamed whistle-blowers who told of the secret CIA prisons and the unauthorized domestic surveillance, will be hunted down. (No shotguns involved, one hopes.) Of course, at times when public opinion is trending perilously the wrong way, Cheney apparently is happy to play the Washington game and leak information that bolsters his argument and tears down his opponents. According to press reports last week, Cheney's former aide Scooter Libby now says it was his "superiors" who instructed him to do the kind of leaking that has him facing trial on federal charges.

Foreign policy wise man Brent Scowcroft, who served with Cheney under George Bush the Elder, famously said that he doesn't recognize the man who now occupies the vice presidency. I wonder what happened.

A pop psychologist might speculate that Cheney was shaken by two stunning blows. One of them -- the Sept. 11 attacks -- was suffered by all Americans, but it's hard to overstate the extent to which George Bush the Younger and his inner circle took Sept. 11 personally. The other blow is Cheney's personal health crisis, which has entailed a series of heart attacks and operations. It's easy to imagine that the fear of a new, even more catastrophic terrorist attack, combined with the intimation of his own mortality, could produce the kind of out-of-my-damn-way inflexibility we see in Cheney today.

But I doubt the vice president would have any patience with this sort of navel-gazing. Just lock and load. The rest of you, don't forget to duck.

It was radio host Tom Joyner who came up with Cheney's Valentine's Day poem:

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Say something I don't like, And I'll shoot you, too.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

 

[Mookie]

News of the Vice President's Misfire Hits A Fellow Bird Hunter Where It Hurts

By Stephen Hunter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; C01

The pleasure -- and the challenge -- of bird hunting is that you are in motion against the texture of the land and it can always trick you. (1996 Photo By Angus Phillips -- The Washington Post)

How many vice presidents does it take to shoot a 78-year-old Texas lawyer?

The answer is only one, and the talk show monologuists will have a merry old time at Vice President Cheney's expense for his hunter's blunder, as will the editorial cartoonists and virtually every human being with an opinion.

So there'll be some partisan coup-counting, some journo-s******ing, and probably a news conference with both the vice president and his friend and very lucky victim Harry Whittington in the near future. One thing I've always liked about Cheney is his samurai blankness and refusal to be cuddly for the cameras; but it's likely that he and Harry will have to get together -- although probably not cling and weep and thank God as they should -- to the tune of the motor-driven Nikons.

But here's the important question: What can be learned from the incident? Like all gun accidents, the events of Saturday morning teach a lesson and in this case a serious one -- that even longtime, seasoned hunters can make a mistake if they forget the fundamentals.

The fundamental etiquette and safety device of bird hunting is: Obey the line.

The line is between you and the game ahead of you, and by you I mean everybody in your party. The line is invisible but should exist in the imagination as powerfully as the Great Wall of China. It is the simple geography of safety that determines that we are here and we only shoot there -- that is, ahead of us. It has certain mandates. One is that at any given moment, one should know where everybody in the hunting party is. You have to keep those images in mind as you move over the ground. It has to be second nature.

It can be tough. The pleasure of bird hunting is that unlike still hunting (the duck blind, the deer stand) you are in motion against the texture of the land and it can always trick you with unseen folds, with grass that's higher than it should be, with trees that aren't as thick or are twice as thick as they seem. Then irregularities of incline and decline, of vegetation and stoniness all play havoc against the line, as well as heat, thirst, hunger, comfort and emotional state.

But you risk much if you lose contact with the line.

It appears the vice president lost contact with the line. News reports indicate that, as the man farthest to the right in his party, he assumed that the third member, his friend Whittington, was well off the field. He did not know and Whittington did not inform him that Whittington was rejoining the party from the right rear. When the vice president "busted a covey" -- that is, startled a group of birds into flight to his far right -- he tracked one, stayed on it even as he curled around farther to the rear and pulled the trigger.

At that moment a great many things were in play.

For one thing, the vice president has selected his bird and his mind is busy solving the geometric problem of lead and flight time. Second, he is boring in on the target itself, which is accelerating. Wing shooting alone demands that a gunner concentrate on the target, not the sights. The art of the shot is in mastering the mount so that as the gun comes up and is placed to the shoulder, head, eye, arm and hand are in perfect synchronism and the shot pattern goes where the eyes are looking. If you take your eye from the target to divert to the sights, the whole elegant choreography falls apart and you miss. That's apparently what Cheney was looking at -- he saw only the bird, its wings whirring as it drilled through the air, everything else was blur. Whittington, orange vest or not, was invisible to him.

Some may say of Cheney: He was really unlucky.

I say: He was really lucky.

He was lucky to be so superb a wing shot that he carried a shotgun in 28-gauge rather than 12-gauge. That probably saved Harry Whittington's life. The 28 is for advanced bird hunters who've killed their thousands with a 12 -- the common hunting shell of America's shotgunners -- and want something more refined, lighter, more beautiful. With the 28 you have to get closer, shoot faster and more accurately. The little pieces of shot break their cluster sooner, spray more widely, lose velocity faster.

Nevertheless, it shouldn't have happened; the bottom line is that the vice president should not have whirled, tracked a flying bird and fired.

I speak of these matters as a man who has violated that principle himself and almost paid for it in grief and shame. Instead, and oh so luckily, I have only bad memories. It looks as though that'll be Cheney's fate as well.

My almost kill wasn't a lawyer, it was a dog. (No jokes, please!) It happened on a bright day in upper Baltimore County where, with two friends and a guide, I was walking the grounds of a game reserve. We were hunting not quail but pheasant over a dog. "Over a dog": The quaint Britishism conveys the interplay between man, bird and dog as it unfolds in real space, a rolling crest of meadow and low brush and glades of trees.

On this day, I happened to be shooting very well. It's a pleasure that is difficult to express, and I won't bother trying, because if you don't get it, you'll never get it (here, Hunters@washpost.com -- go ahead, tell me what a monster I am, you'll feel so much better). I seemed to be seeing better than usual (new glasses) and the birds were breaking my way.

The elegance of it is so satisfying: The gun comes up, unwilled; you track the bird, as by some alchemy you become the gun and sense when your barrel -- that smudge of dark at the bottom of the melange of imagery your eye has conjured -- is past your target the right amount and then the gun seems to fire itself. All this happens, to steal a phrase from le Carre, at a speed which has no place in time: If you're thinking KEEP THE GUN MOVING, it's already too late.

On this shot, the bird broke low and straight, a right-to-left passer, about 25 yards out, and I was on it. Even as I felt all the right things happening I was aware that something was blinking ABORT MISSION in the bottom left of the sight picture, even if my conscious mind had not yet intercepted it. Too late: I fired, busted the bird in that satisfying cloud of feathers and wreckage, as it instantly loses its aerodynamicism and becomes just weight in air.

The next thing I saw as my barrel sped by was the dog.

He had been out there all the time, beyond the line. My subconscious knew he was there; my conscious, the really dumb part of me, never got the message.

The dog was fine. The dog didn't know that if I had fired a tenth of a second later, he would've had a nasty encounter with 200 or so No. 8 pellets.

But my friends and the guide knew exactly what had happened: hubris, arrogance, self-love, narcissism, all the truly destructive male pathologies. The point of hunting is to control them: I had not. The silence was louder than any expressions of anger, though the guide had a good reason to call me a stupid SOB. He didn't, but still I was.

You can't get those moments back. You can only learn from them. If you don't, then you're even stupider .

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

 

[Tousi]

Didn't the guy who got hit break the first rule of line hunting: Announce your return if you get out of line!

 

[Mookie]

White House Deferred to Cheney on Shooting
In a Break With Policy, Hunting Accident Was Not Disclosed for 14 Hours

Vice President Cheney arrives at the White House to attend a security briefing. Cheney did not comment on his accidental shooting of a friend. (By Ron Edmonds -- Associated Press)

By Jim VandeHei and Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; A01

The 78-year-old Texas lawyer who was shot by Vice President Cheney in a hunting accident this weekend was moved from intensive care in stable condition yesterday as new details emerged showing that the White House allowed Cheney to decide when and how to disclose details of the shooting to the local sheriff and the public the next morning.

President Bush and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove were told of the shooting Saturday night but deferred to Cheney on providing information to the public, White House aides said. In what one official described as a break with the White House practice of disclosing such high-level mishaps immediately, Cheney waited more than 14 hours after the shooting to disclose it publicly.

Cheney's spokesman said the vice president was more concerned about the health of the accident's victim, Republican lawyer Harry Whittington. But even some White House officials said Cheney mishandled the response and opened the administration to criticism that it was withholding important public information.

In his news briefing, White House spokesman Scott McClellan -- who was not alerted to Cheney's involvement in the shooting until early Sunday morning -- suggested he would have done it differently.

Cheney, 65, shot Whittington on Saturday afternoon at the exclusive 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch near Corpus Christi during a hunting party with three other people. The host, Katharine Armstrong, said no one had been drinking before the shooting and all were wearing blaze-orange safety gear.

She said Whittington did not announce himself when trudging toward the group after picking up a quail he had just shot. Cheney did not see him as he swung his 28-gauge shotgun toward a covey of quail just taking flight, said Armstrong, who witnessed the accident. Cheney hit Whittington with a spray of birdshot in the face, neck and chest.

The White House directed reporters to Armstrong's comments and did not fault Cheney. Cheney, who had a private White House lunch with Bush yesterday, did not comment on the shooting. Late yesterday, he issued a statement that did not mention the shooting but acknowledged not having paid $7 for a permit that allows him to shoot upland birds; it said he is sending a check to the state. Cheney said he expects to be issued a warning by state authorities for not obtaining the permit.

Hunting-safety experts said the onus would typically be on a hunter who had left his usual spot in a group to let the others know where he was. "The shooter always has the ultimate responsibility" but sometimes it is impossible to anticipate mistakes made by fellow hunters, said Donnie Buckland, senior vice president of Quail Unlimited.

But the experts also said hunters are taught to learn where everyone in their party is before firing. "If you are squeezing the trigger, you will not get that shot back and you need to make sure of the target and surrounding area and make sure it is safe to shoot into to," said Mark Birkhauser of the International Hunter Education Association. The details of the shooting remain murky because Armstrong was the only person present who has provided details to reporters.

Kenedy County Chief Deputy Gilbert San Miguel Jr. issued a statement late yesterday saying the incident had been investigated by local authorities and was determined to be "no more than a hunting accident." He told reporters the case remains open.

Local law enforcement officials did not interview Cheney until Sunday morning, about 14 hours after the shooting, in an agreement worked out between the Secret Service and Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said at least one deputy was turned away shortly after the shooting because security personnel at the ranch were not aware of the agreement between the sheriff and the Secret Service.

In a telephone interview, Armstrong said that she, her mother and her sister, Sara Storey Armstrong Hixon, decided on Sunday morning after breakfast to report the shooting accident to the media. "It was my family's own volition, and the vice president agreed. We felt -- my family felt and we conferred as a family -- that the information needed to go public. It was our idea," Armstrong said.

The White House typically releases information immediately on incidents involving the president's personal life, such as bike-riding accidents, to avoid the appearance of covering up embarrassments. It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for the White House to allow a private citizen serve as its de facto spokesman.

But current and former aides said the White House rarely imposes its practices, especially on press matters, on Cheney. The vice president's office often operates autonomously in a manner that many top White House officials are reluctant to challenge.

In this case, Cheney worked with family members and former aide Mary Matalin on how to handle the fallout of the shooting accident, said a person close to the vice president who demanded anonymity to talk about internal discussions.

Armstrong contacted the Corpus Christi Caller-Times around 9 a.m. Central time on Sunday. Asked why the information was not disseminated on Saturday night, immediately after the accident, Armstrong said: "The last thing that was on our mind was the media. We were thinking about Harry."

Armstrong; her sister; Cheney; Whittington; and Pamela Pitzer Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, went out on the ranch to hunt quail. Armstrong said the protocol they used was to have three hunters shooting at one time: While two sat in the hunt vehicle, the other three were hunting. They would then rotate.

The hunters, wearing bright-orange vests and caps, walked in a line across a pasture. From what Armstrong said she saw as she sat in the hunt vehicle about 100 yards from Cheney and the other hunters, Whittington walked back, away from the line, to look for a bird that he had shot but that a dog did not find.

He then walked forward toward Cheney, approaching from behind and to the right of him and the other hunter when the vice president shot at a quail and hit the lawyer.

The manager of a ranch in neighboring Brooks County attended a quail lunch at the Armstrong Ranch headquarters midday Sunday with Cheney. Lavoyger Durham, manager of El Tule Ranch, said the luncheon talk was of "North Korea, India, China, Taiwan."

There was no discussion about the accident the night before, he said, but it became known at the luncheon that Cheney asked to have the morning hunt canceled. "He didn't want to shoot," Durham said.

Moreno reported from Sarita, Tex.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

 

[Mookie]

After Cheney's Shooting Incident, Time to Unload
Episode Triggers a Fusillade of Wisecracks, And a Withering Blast From White House Press

By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; C01

(By Steven Hausler -- Hays (Kan.) Daily News Via Ap)

It was one of those "everyone's a wise guy" days in Washington yesterday, thanks to Dick Cheney. Quipping at the vice president's expense was like shooting fish, or quail -- oh, never mind.

It's never a good thing to be a punch line in politics, and the vice president had the field to himself after accidentally shooting his hunting companion, Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, at a Texas ranch late Saturday. The accident left the 78-year-old man seriously injured. He was released from the intensive care unit yesterday.

Meantime, the incident provided a laugh bounty for gallows humorists, particularly those of the anti-Bush persuasion. Have at 'em, kids:

"Bush-Quail '06," cracked Democratic strategist Jenny Backus.

"The CIA assured Cheney that Harry Whittington was actually a pheasant," added Democratic speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum.

"The worst part is, he was aiming at the special prosecutor," contributed John Kerry spokesman David Wade.

Democratic staffers on the Hill could be heard singing a parody of Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun," using the words "Cheney's got a gun." Or marveling at how "Republicans really don't like lawyers, do they?" or circulating a quote from Bush, in a 2000 interview with the Houston Chronicle, in which he hailed Cheney as "somebody who is going to shoot straight with the American people."

This was just a small sampling, taken from amateur jokesters willing to attach their names to the one-liners.

As for the professionals: On "The Daily Show" last night, Jon Stewart, speaking as a "concerned parent," urged viewers never to let their children go on hunting trips with the vice president. "I can't emphasize this enough," Stewart said. "I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulation they're trying to get lifted. . . . He'll shoot them in the face."

Likewise, David Letterman's Top 10 list was devoted to "Dick Cheney's excuses," which included that he "thought the guy was trying to go gay cowboy on me."

As neither President Bush nor Cheney spoke publicly about the accident yesterday, it fell to White House spokesman Scott McClellan to suffer the media equivalent of birdshot. He was pressed repeatedly on why it took a day for the administration to acknowledge that the vice president had accidentally shot a man.

The most heated public moment occurred during McClellan's off-camera "gaggle" with White House reporters yesterday morning. It featured NBC's David Gregory, one of McClellan's most persistent inquisitors over the last year, who raised his voice while asking a question about the incident.

"Hold on," McClellan interrupted, pointing out that "the cameras aren't on right now. You can do this later."

"Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras," Gregory replied. "Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question."

"You don't have to yell," McClellan said.

"I will yell," said Gregory, jabbing his finger in McClellan's direction. "If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong."

"Calm down, Dave. Calm down," said McClellan evenly.

The two men spoke privately after the gaggle, Gregory said later. No apologies were exchanged.

"I said what I said and I meant what I said," Gregory said. He said he and McClellan get along "very well," a point agreed upon by McClellan during a brief interview.

"David's a good guy and a good reporter," McClellan added. He said that yesterday was "one of those days where I knew exactly what to expect."

McClellan began his midday news conference with a few words about how strong the U.S. economy is. Then he took questions, none of which was about the economy. The majority of the 41-minute briefing was given over to Cheney's hunting accident.

"Scott, do you think that the shooting accident involving the vice president on Saturday should have been disclosed to the public on Saturday?" a reporter asked.

McClellan replied -- as he did to many questions -- that the first priority was to ensure that Whittington was receiving appropriate medical care.

He referred about a dozen questions to the vice president's office.

"The vice president spoke with Mrs. Katharine Armstrong," McClellan said, referring to the owner of the ranch where Cheney and Whittington were hunting. "And they agreed that she should make that information public. She was an eyewitness. She saw what occurred. And she called her local paper to provide those facts to the local paper."

Later McClellan was asked, "As press secretary, are you satisfied with the way this was handled?"

"Well," he replied, "I think you can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job."

After an indecipherable blur of shouted questions, Gregory's voice rose over those of his competitors.

"Let's just be clear here," Gregory said. "The vice president of the United States accidentally shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper and not the White House press corps at large or notify the public in a national way?"

"Well, I think we all know that once it is made public, then it's going to be news and all of you are going to be seeking that information," McClellan replied.

Several questions followed, including three variations on "When did the president learn that the vice president had shot someone?"

In the course of the session, reporters made seven references to Cheney having "shot" someone, with four to a "shooting."

McClellan referred to the episode as an "accident." His shoulders relaxed noticeably when the questions turned, briefly, to Iranian nukes, riots over cartoons and Brownie.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

 

[Heath]

Didn't the guy who got hit break the first rule of line hunting: Announce your return if you get out of line!

and also Vice President Cheney should have held his line of fire.

 

[pek1]

Not necessarily,

If you are disabled or have a handicapped hunter's license then you can shoot from a moving truck to get a deer, a bear or a wild game like quail etc.

You would have to apply for a disabled hunter's license and get medical paperwork signed at the doctor's office.

Have a happy and safe hunting.

As soon as I saw your "Not necessarily," I knew I had been called on it. This is correct and I didn't mention it.

Also, in Minnesota, one can hunt with a crossbow if disabled. My oldest brother has his doctor's okay to hunt with one, but hasn't yet or has a crossbow. I have a birth defect on left hand/arm, so there'd be no problem for me to hunt with a crossbow. Thanks Heath, for the correction.

 

[The*Empress]

What happen if the lawyer die from heart attack? Will Cheney be charge with murder? Will Cheney not be Vice President anymore?

 

[Mookie]

What happen if the lawyer die from heart attack? Will Cheney be charge with murder? Will Cheney not be Vice President anymore?

OH, Miss P., what a terrible thought! :Ohno:

Nope, his position will be over at the end of the second term. Moreover, he would not annoucne for the new presidency.

 

[Steel X]

What happen if the lawyer die from heart attack? Will Cheney be charge with murder? Will Cheney not be Vice President anymore?

If he did die, he should've been charged with murder anyway...even if it was an accident. there's still no excuse to let him go just because he's a vice president :roll: a crime is a crime is A CRIME.

 

[Beowulf]

What ordinarily happens in this sort of situation to the Average Joe is that he gets charged with misdemeanor assault and negligently wounding another person, and the punishment would be something like 20 or 30 hours work on the Sheriff's road crews, no hunting for a couple years during its probation time, a hefty fine, etc.
But will Cheney be considered above the law?
Yup.

 

[pek1]

What ordinarily happens in this sort of situation to the Average Joe is that he gets charged with misdemeanor assault and negligently wounding another person, and the punishment would be something like 20 or 30 hours work on the Sheriff's road crews, no hunting for a couple years during its probation time, a hefty fine, etc.
But will Cheney be considered above the law?
Yup.

Chain Gang!! We can fantasize, can't we?

 

[Taylor]

I was talking to some officers today who are hunters (I'm not a hunter myself) and was told that a lot of these accidents are somewhat common in regards to bird shot when hunting birds.

I found some stats from Texas about hunting accidents --HERE-- (PDF Format)

As for penalties,

What ordinarily happens in this sort of situation to the Average Joe is that he gets charged with misdemeanor assault and negligently wounding another person, and the punishment would be something like 20 or 30 hours work on the Sheriff's road crews, no hunting for a couple years during its probation time, a hefty fine, etc.
But will Cheney be considered above the law?
Yup.

I did some looking around and I haven't found anything that says Cheney's citation for not having a license is out of the ordinary and is common practice. A hunting accident doesn't mean it was an assault nor negligent wounding, nor did I find that it was standard for hunting accidents to be charged with 20 to 30 hours on a road crew, nor getting probation.

If they can find that he broke the law, then charge him with it, but apparently the only law he broke was not having a permit (which he was charged with).

Both parties at this are at fault (not just Cheney) and both broke common safety practices when it comes to hunting. They are both idiots in that regard but the last time I checked, being an idiot isn't a crime by itself.

Its interesting that some people think Cheney should be charged more harshly than the Average Joe who does something stupid. Some may think that Cheney is 'above the law', but why should he be below the law?

Whats suprising to me is how many people accidentally shoot themselves. This is where safety comes into mind. Here is an example of a lot of the articles I read.

A CPO is investigating a hunting accident that occurred in far southern Iroquois County. A nine year old upland hunter, accompanied by his father, accidentally wounded a ten year old female companion. The girl was not hunting, but was with her father in the hunting party. The victim suffered pellet wounds to her face, torso, and an arm. She was airlifted to an Urbana hospital, but her injuries were not life threatening. The shooter is an Indiana resident who attended hunter education in his home state. No charges have been filed.

 

[Reiko]

If he did die, he should've been charged with murder anyway...even if it was an accident. there's still no excuse to let him go just because he's a vice president :roll: a crime is a crime is A CRIME.

But it was an accident not a crime. If he did it on purpose or ran away after he did it then it becomes a crime.

 

[Beowulf]

I was talking to some officers today who are hunters (I'm not a hunter myself) and was told that a lot of these accidents are somewhat common in regards to bird shot when hunting birds.

I found some stats from Texas about hunting accidents --HERE-- (PDF Format)

As for penalties,



I did some looking around and I haven't found anything that says Cheney's citation for not having a license is out of the ordinary and is common practice. A hunting accident doesn't mean it was an assault nor negligent wounding, nor did I find that it was standard for hunting accidents to be charged with 20 to 30 hours on a road crew, nor getting probation.

If they can find that he broke the law, then charge him with it, but apparently the only law he broke was not having a permit (which he was charged with).

Both parties at this are at fault (not just Cheney) and both broke common safety practices when it comes to hunting. They are both idiots in that regard but the last time I checked, being an idiot isn't a crime by itself.

Its interesting that some people think Cheney should be charged more harshly than the Average Joe who does something stupid. Some may think that Cheney is 'above the law', but why should he be below the law?

Whats suprising to me is how many people accidentally shoot themselves. This is where safety comes into mind. Here is an example of a lot of the articles I read.

I agree that it was apparently a simple hunting accident and I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. A couple years ago I had a buddy who accidentally shot someone in the leg while deerhunting, and he got into ALL SORTS of trouble for it. I also agree that Cheney shouldn't be judged more harshly than the Average Joe, but heck, as far as I know, he still hasn't talked to the police about the incident, which makes HIM think he is indeed above the law.
Anyway, i am glad we can still see humor in what could have been a lot worse, and yup, accidents happen more frequently than we suppose.