"" Thanks for the generous gift...how do these things work? Don't worry, I'll figure it out..."
Posted on 02/12/2006 12:46:46 PM PST by bayourant
Edited on 02/12/2006 2:10:43 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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.
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.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.
you know, the wife and I were watching the Blue Jackets pre-game last night and they had a bit about curling.
My wife turned to me and said "I've GOT to know more about this game."
LOL
Now what was it we were just talking about on your thread -- was it how out of control the press is?
Brace yourself.
Hello,
LOL!!!
Glad to be here, MOgirl
"It's like someone spiked the punchbowl at the local asylum."
ROTFLMAO! Sounds like business as usual over there!
*Snort*
LOL. But considering the potty mouths over there, they only bowl DU brings to my mind is a toilet bowl.
Must have thought that Whittington was a reporter from the NY Times.
I almost did that once rabbit hunting. I don't know how I missed the guy. He'd gotten ahead or I'd gotten behind...
All I know is back in 2002 there was some news story that broke and MSNBC couldn't report it because they were showing curling.
I'd still rather hunt with Cheney, than drive with Kennedy.
WURD!
My mistake- Whittington, not Whittaker.
lol now if that was true that would have been something. I wonder what qualye is doing these days
Yes, but at least they'll be all focused on a really important issue. Impeach the VP! LOL!
Don't laugh; a lot of people got hooked on curling during the last Olympics.
COVERUP!
Jay Leno. Call your office!
Where are you, snugs? You just know that they're laughing like crazy and will be joking about this for years. Apparently, Wittington went into the bushes and didn't signal when he was coming back, as you're supposed to. By this time,
Cheney had picked out his bird and fired .. Wittington appears .. in the line of fire. He's fine.
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