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.
[ ... Soaprah (noun) 1) An overwrought, emotional response to some news item or event. 2) A news item that garners far more attention than it really deserves.
"Did you hear about Dick Cheney's accident...what a 'Soaprah'...]
Fantastic Definition. LOL!!
This could extend my fame account to ... er ... maybe 30 seconds. Whooh! Hooh!
Dick Cheney accidentally shoots hunting buddy, who will recover it seems.
The news media deems which of the above to be most newworthy?.......why, the one they have the audacity in which to demand an immediate notification of...as if they are some oversight committee.
Guess what, media types. Your boy Bob Woodruff wasn't given any notification before he nearly had his head blown off.........and there is something far more sinister there.
I like the "Rambo" imagery being created here.
Oooh, how's this:
Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him hosed him down with shotgun pellets
See....Soaprah!
As much as I hate to admit it, I am dating a leftie. She works as a news producer and their jokes today were along the line of 'Oh, Cheney should take Bush hunting!' I then explained that Cheney would then become president for the rest of Bush's term and to be careful what she wishes for. She didn't say another word....
Real funny. Suggest to her for me that she do a cover story in Takrit.
You have a gift. How did you come up with that so quickly?
Don't mind me I have satirical nomenclature envy.
Related projects:
SOAPRAH DIGEST
SOAPRAH JOURNALISM (oxymoron)
SOAPRAH-TORIALS
SOAPRAH-MONIALS
CNN?
Did we ever figure out which reporterette was the one that actually had the gall to ask for Cheney's resignation at the White House press briefing today? I don't want to have to plow back through 1000 posts to find out.
Still think a steering wheel in Teddys hands is far more dangerous than a shotgun in the Veeps.
"Still think a steering wheel in Teddys hands is far more dangerous than a shotgun in the Veeps."
Aren't lawyers still in season in Texas?
lol
Remember Julie Brown's "Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun"
http://www.juliebrown.com/
Thanks for reposting that Cheney pix. Ok, maybe it's not in the greatest taste right now, but I had it as wall paper for a long time, and lost it during a hubby upgrade. Great to have it again, although I guess I might not be putting it up at the office just yet!
Why couldn't Dick accidently bomb Tehran?
It'd be sooooo perfect.
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