Dick Cheney looking for new hunting partner

Digger · Post by **Digger** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:20 pm

BREAKING NEWS

Updated: 4:25 p.m. ET Feb. 12, 2006
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick 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.

Whittington was in stable condition Sunday, said Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Christus Spohn Health System.

Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital on Sunday afternoon.

Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shot at a covey of quail late afternoon on Saturday.

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 found 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 told the Associated Press in an interview.

“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.”

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

‘It knocked him silly’
She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic. “It broke the skin,” she said. “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.”

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.

“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.”

Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year. 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.

GREYWOLF · Post by **GREYWOLF** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:33 pm

And the worst part of it !! He is a REPUBLICAN also.?
He should have taken KERRY & KENNEDY with him and been useing a
50 calibur machine gun

GREYWOLF

MichiganBill · Post by **MichiganBill** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:23 pm

stfu...OK!

mblaney · Post by **mblaney** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:33 am

Did he get the bird though?

CYCLONE · Post by **CYCLONE** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:42 am

Very righteous bstout!

But I would still rather hunt with Cheney than ride with Kennedy.

Woody Williams · Post by **Woody Williams** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:17 am

CYCLONE wrote:Very righteous bstout!

But I would still rather hunt with Cheney than ride with Kennedy.

I would rather that Kennedy hunt with Cheney..

Maybe Shillary , Schumer, and Kerry too?

CaptainCharles · Post by **CaptainCharles** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:55 am

Cheney '08 He'll pop a cap in yo a@s!!

ninepointer · Post by **ninepointer** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:42 pm

Based on what I have heard, if this happened in Canada the offending hunter would be charged immediately, "no if's and's or but's". I wonder how this will play out in American law?

Ninepointer

Woody Williams · Post by **Woody Williams** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:43 pm

ninepointer wrote:Based on what I have heard, if this happened in Canada the offending hunter would be charged immediately, "no if's and's or but's". I wonder how this will play out in American law?

Ninepointer

Charge who? The shooter or the guy that walked into his line of fire?

The details that I have got out of it is..

They were walking abreast across a field. Cheney was last man on the right. The lawyer dropped back to pick up or look for a bird then came up on Cheneys right without saying anything. H did not resume his position in the line.

Cheney KNEW he was last man on the right so he could swing and shoot safely in that direction. Oops! Mr. Lawyer was in the way.

What do you bet the lawyer angle will be played on the late night shows? Already heard a "Quayle/quail" joke this am and another saying "Too bad Kerry wasn't hunting with him!"

Of course I have to add I'd rather hunt with Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy in a car.

Hi5 · Post by **Hi5** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:40 pm

Woody

You are being entirely too logical.

In Canada, the shooter should ALWAYS be charged. That way, it generates anti gun publicity, even if the charges are dropped before they go to trial.

It helps to scare off decent, honest, people who might otherwise be interested in taking up firearms as a hobby. In addition to criminals who use guns, it shows that NOBODY really needs one, they are just too dangerous, you know.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Hi5 in Canada the onus is on the shooter always. the shooter is responsible for his gun at all times. He/she MUST make sure of the target before he/she shoots. That is the difference between Canada and the US.

Partikle · Post by **Partikle** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:29 pm

A year after his "accident" Harry wasn't taking any chances.

Hi5 · Post by **Hi5** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:06 pm

Tom wrote:Hi5 in Canada the onus is on the shooter always. the shooter is responsible for his gun at all times. He/she MUST make sure of the target before he/she shoots. That is the difference between Canada and the US.

Tom

In Canada it's not truly an issue of firearms safety.

Whether or not it's the shooter or the shootee, it doesn't matter who is actually to blame.... the Liberal governments in Ontario or previous ones in Ottawa and the media all want to blame the shooter. That way all firearms sports can be discredited. It's the same idea when guns are stolen from someone's gun safe-- the owner is to be charged with unsafe storage. (It's happened.)

They won't be satisfied till only the police and military are the ones left with firearms.

Partikle · Post by **Partikle** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:33 am

TV joke writers take shots at Cheney

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Television talk shows took aim Monday at Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental weekend shooting in Texas of a hunting companion. Here are a few of the 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."

CYCLONE · Post by **CYCLONE** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:29 pm

bstout wrote:To boot this guy didn't have the proper tag to accommodate his license.

poach·er (pō'chər)

n.

1. One who hunts or fishes illegally on the property of another.

bstout,
If you are going to tell a story tell the whole story bubba. It was a habitat stamp that was just made mandatory in the last 5 months. The lawyer that is a resident of Texas that was on the receiving end of the blast did not even have one. Cheney was given a warning so I think your labeling him a poacher is a bit of a stretch. You said earlier you do not want to stir things up?
So while you are looking in the dictionary look up hypocrite: N: a person who professes beliefs and opinions the he does not hold. syn phony.