Dick Cheney shoots old man

[BlueChair]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/12/ ... index.html

Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter
'Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.

Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas, said Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner.

He was described as in stable condition by Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi.

Armstrong in an interview with The Associated Press said Whittington, 78, was mostly injured on his right side, with the pellets hitting his cheek, neck and chest during the incident which occurred late afternoon on Saturday

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington until the ambulance arrived.

Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday.

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The vice president's office did not disclose the accident until nearly 24 hours after it happened.

Ranch owner: Cheney was very apologetic
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.

"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."

Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.

Whittington owns property in Travis County worth at least $11 million, the Austin American-Statesman reported last year, not counting a downtown block at the center of a long-running dispute with the city over a condemnation issue.

Armstrong, owner of the Armstrong Ranch where the accident occurred, said Whittington was bleeding and Cheney was very apologetic.

"It broke the skin," she said of the shotgun pellets. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual hunting trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks.

Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year and is "a very safe sportsman."

She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.

"This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[LessThanZero]

Idiot a*******.

[Extreme Honey]

Shouldn't that corrup sob be doing something useful?

[mood swung]

if he was a Republican millionaire attorney, I think it would count as useful.



kidding!

really!

guns are bad!

[Goody2Shoes]

I think it's hilarious.

[bobster]

With any luck, this thing will at least have as much legs as when Jimmy Carter got attacked by that rabbit.

I CANNOT WAIT for the next Daily Show. Still, as I'm sure they'll mention, they really don't have to add very much to it. Pure real-life comedy gold, since the guy apparently wasn't too badly hurt, I mean.

[bobster]

This just in from today's luncheon for Academy Award nominees...

George Clooney: "I am bringing Dick Cheney as my date. He was so nice. He called me and invited me to go hunting." --

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArt ... ived=False

[mood swung]

I'm hoping it will have the Breck effect - where you tell one friend and she tells one friend and she tells one friend and so on and so on and so on, only substitute "shoot" for "tell."

[spooky girlfriend]

From the CNN website this morning - a review of late night jokes:

"Late Show with David Letterman," CBS

# "Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It's Dick Cheney."

# "But here is the sad part -- before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armor."

# "We can't get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."

# "The guy who got gunned down, he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he's fine. He took a little in the wallet."

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," NBC

# "Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, D.C., Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear."

# "That's the big story over the weekend. ... Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 percent."

# "I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?' "

# "Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine's Day. It's the new Dick Cheney cologne. It's called Duck!"

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Comedy Central

# The show's segment titles included "Cheney's Got a Gun," "No. 2 With a Bullet" and "Dead-Eye Dick."

# "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird."

# "Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... Moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted -- it's just not worth it."

"Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," CBS

# "He is a lawyer and he got shot in the face. But he's a lawyer, he can use his other face. He'll be all right."

# "You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down, because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, 'If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.' "

# "The big scandal apparently is that they didn't release the news for 18 hours. I don't think that's a scandal at all. I'm quite pleased about that. Finally there's a secret the vice president's office can keep."

# "Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past."


Cheney's got a gun - genius!!

[verena]

I also find this hilarious. The guy wasn't seriously injured.

So next time he'll know better than dashing forward without a warning and putting himself in the line of fire...

No kidding it's very thoughtless to do that, think of the guy who may end up killing you and suffering over it for the rest if his life. This type of accident is quite frequent in France, although few people may hunt (one must have a licence and pass an exam which isn't easy). When I was 10 years old my grandfather would take me duck hunting but that was it, no pheasant hunting in the grass, he said I would be shot like a rabbit.

[Who Shot Sam?]

I thought the Rob Corddry bit on Jon Stewart's show was funny as hell. They had a field day with it, no pun intended.

[noiseradio]

The "Duck Hunt" reenactment on the Daily Show was classic TV.

[Who Shot Sam?]

The guy has apparently suffered a minor heart attack now, after some of the birdshot got lodged in his heart. I thought Cheney got him in the head. What a tool.

[wardo68]

I still like my wife's take:

"What's the big deal? It's probably not the first guy Cheney's shot in the face."

[Tim(e)]

The guy has apparently suffered a minor heart attack now, after some of the birdshot got lodged in his heart. I thought Cheney got him in the head. What a tool.

I think with a shotgun there is a good chance the shot would have sprayed everywhere... the interesting (?) thing is that it appears that Cheney was unlicensed at the time of the incident.

[Who Shot Sam?]

I think with a shotgun there is a good chance the shot would have sprayed everywhere... the interesting (?) thing is that it appears that Cheney was unlicensed at the time of the incident.

...and the police took 14 hours before they questioned him. I doubt anyone else would get that kind of treatment.

[BlueChair]

impeach!

[mood swung]

[BlueChair]

hahahahh

[oily slick]

Holling Vincouer! i play him on ecfans.com!

[verena]

Dick hasn't got a licence ? oh oh. Maybe that's why they needed 18 hours to get a story straight. That would change a lotta things.

[noiseradio]

The guy has apparently suffered a minor heart attack now, after some of the birdshot got lodged in his heart. I thought Cheney got him in the head. What a tool.

I think with a shotgun there is a good chance the shot would have sprayed everywhere... the interesting (?) thing is that it appears that Cheney was unlicensed at the time of the incident.

You're only half right. He has a valid hunting license. Everything was up to date, except for one stamp for this particular prey in this particular season. The stamps cost $7, and his was expired. It's a very minor infraction, the kind of thing no one ever gets even a ticket for.

The problem wasn't hunting without a license. It was hunting lawyers.

[spooky girlfriend]

Now I *know* Cheney is crazy - he's giving the story scoop to FOX NEWS today!!!!!!!!!