Posted on 02/13/2006 8:58:59 PM PST by iPod Shuffle
Posted on Mon, Feb. 13, 2006
Cheney's companion at fault in shooting, White House says
By William Douglas
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The White House blamed the 78-year-old man whom Vice President Dick Cheney shot during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas for the incident, as officials struggled Monday to explain why they waited nearly 24 hours before making the news public.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan tried to absolve Cheney of blame for shooting wealthy Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, saying that hunting "protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington when it came to notifying others that he was there. And so, you know, unfortunately, these types of hunting accidents happen from time to time."
Several hunting experts were skeptical of McClellan's explanation. They said Cheney might have violated a cardinal rule of hunting: Know your surroundings before you pull the trigger.
"Particularly identify the game that you are shooting and particularly identify your surroundings, that it's safe to shoot," said Mark Birkhauser, the incoming president of the International Hunter Education Association, a group of fish and wildlife agencies. "Every second, you're adjusting your personal information that it is a safe area to shoot or it's not a safe area to shoot."
Safe-hunting rules published by the National Rifle Association and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department echo Birkhauser's advice.
Cheney has a Texas non-resident hunting license, but he failed to get a $7 stamp that's required to hunt game birds, the vice president's office said in a statement Monday night. He has since sent a check to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to buy the stamp, the statement said.
Whittington was listed in stable condition Monday at a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, with birdshot wounds to his face, neck and chest. The shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch, a 50,000-acre spread in south Texas owned by friends of the president.
White House and Texas law enforcement officials haven't provided a detailed account of the incident. Katharine Armstrong, one of the ranch's owners, said Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of their vehicle to shoot a covey of quail. The third member of the hunting party was the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, Pamela Willeford, a Texan and a Bush family friend.
Whittington shot a bird and went to get it, breaking from Cheney and Willeford. Armstrong said Whittington then came up from behind without signaling, and as a covey flushed Cheney wheeled and fired his .28-gauge shotgun, hitting Whittington.
Whittington was tended at the scene by Cheney's medical detail before being taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Though the shooting happened Saturday afternoon, it didn't become public knowledge until Armstrong notified the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, her local paper, at midday Sunday. The White House then confirmed news media requests for verification.
The lag between the shooting and the reporting of it prompted questions about why a private citizen, not the government, was disclosing a shooting involving the vice president.
McClellan said Monday that Cheney's staff didn't immediately inform the media because the first priority was tending to Whittington's health.
McClellan said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Bush around 8 p.m. Saturday that Cheney had shot Whittington, but McClellan said he himself didn't learn that Cheney was the shooter until around 6 a.m. Sunday. He said he urged Cheney's office to get the information out as quickly as possible. The news broke nationally about 3:45 p.m. EST Sunday.
Lee Anne McBride, Cheney's press secretary, talked Sunday about Whittington's condition and said the vice president had spoken with him and was pleased with his condition. But she referred most questions - from the names of everyone in the hunting party to what type of weapon Cheney had fired - to Armstrong.
"The vice president thought that Mrs. Armstrong should be the first one to go out there and provide that information to the public, which she did," McClellan said.
Cheney's office has a history of not sharing information with the public. Last month, it refused to specify the nature of a foot injury for which he was given medication that caused water retention and shortness of breath and sent him to the hospital.
"He's secretive by nature," said Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "It's a dumb thing for officials to do, especially someone as experienced as Cheney. Just imagine what Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and David Letterman are going to do to him for days. It's a self-inflicted wound."
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For more information about hunting safety, visit the National Rifle Association at www.nra.org, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department at www.tpwd.state.tx.us, and the International Hunter Education Association at www.ihea.com. For the first two sites, key in the search words "hunter safety" to access the rules.
I don't believe that, either.
Do either one of you remember the media breaking into regular programining in 1997 when Bill Clinton had knee surgery because he took a "fall" at Greg Norman's house?
I'm pretty sure we heard about it after the fact -- the next day when he showed up on a stretcher to be flown back to Florida.
Cheney just let his friend know not to be 'dibbing' on the cash flow from the crystal meth lab on the ranch.--Tuesday's Headlines by Couric/NBC.
Doesn't it?
Now you're doing exactly what the media is attempting to do.
I read the sheriff was notified at 5 something Saturday afternoon.
Local "journalists" who cover the copshop are apparently as lazy as the WH press corps. It was on record - south Texas reporters should have picked this up Saturday night at the latest, that they didn't is somehow Bush's/Cheney's/WalMart's fault.
One of the reporters, the blonde in the second row, asked "Would this be more serious if he had been killed?"
You sure didn't..........LOL.
Perhaps because they didn't want to embarass the victim, i.e. it was the victim's fault.
I don't know why the WH has to explain anything about the incident to the lamestream press in any case. Talk about a non-story. Iran is about to get nukes, the US will soon be executing a military strike on Iran, and the most important story of the day is a hunting accident. Yawn... No wonder no one listens to them anymore.
What?
By that time, it was painfully (pun intended) obvious. The fact Bubba was carried away on a stretcher, and hobbling around on crutches soon after was not easy to ignore.
I wouldn't have answered that question. I would have stepped aside and looked at her. My head would have tilted to the side. I would have just stared.
The sheriff said NO ALCOHOL was involved.
But keep saying it.
---I would say always but someone could probably think of a scenario where he wasn't, but I can't.---
The birds will flush from anywhere. I've gotten "rained" on plenty of times hunting quail. The trick is to stay far enough away from other hunters. Your only using a #7 1/2 or 8 shot.
Right, even if Foster committed suicide, he was a high White House official. If anyone in this WH committed suicide, right away they would assume it was due to guilt over some scandal.
Cheney didn't mis-identify his game. He wasn't shooting AT the man, he was shooting at some quail that were flushed from the covey. Sounds like at the instant Cheney pulled the trigger, the man stepped into the path of the birdshot.
It was already bubbling into a scandal the moment FOX News broke the story. The first thing that came to my mind when it broke was, "here we go again".
"Common folk" would have gotten the same warning Cheney did and been given the same opportunity to send in the $7. And, as "common folk", I would have been annoyed too if I asked them to sell me all of the stamps and licenses and they forgot one, sending me a "warning".
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