Posted on 02/15/2006 10:16:34 AM PST by ex-Texan
The real story is already emerging, if you're willing to do a little digging. Cheney and Whittington went hunting with two women (not their wives), there was some drinking, and Whittington wound up shot.
Armstrong didn't see the incident but claimed she had, Cheney refused to be questioned by the Sheriff until the next morning, and a born-again evangelical physician has been downplaying Whittington's injuries since they occurrred. Neither the press nor law enforcement seems inclined to investigate.
Before the right-wing commenters howl - there's documentation for all of these statements. Let's take them one by one: In addition to Cheney and Whittington, the hunting party included Katherine Armstrong (who was in the car at the time of the shooting: more on that later). After lots of evasive comments that only referred to a "third hunter," we now know her identity: Pamela Willeford, the US Ambassador to Switzerland.
Then there was this Armstrong quote on MSNBC and picked up by Firedoglake (later dutifully scrubbed, but preserved on Google cache): "There may be a beer or two in there," (Armstrong) said, 'but remember not everyone in the party was shooting.'"
Interestingly, Armstrong's playing with words here. She later said that she (Armstrong) hadn't had anything to drink, so at least one of the other three must have been drinking - and the other three were shooting. So while her statement was literally correct ("not everyone ... was shooting"), it gives the false impression that nobody drank and shot.
Then there was this item (courtesy kos):
Armstrong said she saw Cheney's security detail running toward the scene. "The first thing that crossed my mind was he had a heart problem," she told The Associated Press. In other words, she didn't see the accident. All of her statements, replete with colorful sidebars about getting "peppered pretty good," gave the false impression she was an eyewitness. She wasn't.
And what about Dr. David Blanchard, who made such light of Whittington's injuries? Before the heart attack occurred, Blanchard gave no indication that pellets had entered Whittington's torso or major organs (we now know that at least one other pellet entered his liver). I found an interesting quote. After asserting that spiritual beliefs help people recover more quickly (which studies have suggested may be true), Blanchard said this of people with out of body and near death experiences:
"These people do quite well in their disease processes," he said. "The Lord wasn't quite ready for them yet . . . It makes believers out of them." It's likely that Blanchard is also the same "Dr. David Blanchard" who is listed as Vice Chairperson of World Hope International, a Christian evangelical aid group.
Blanchard's certainly entitled to his own beliefs, and World Hope International (if he's the same Blanchard) has done some good work, albeit with a proselytizing bent. But most evangelicals in this country are ardent supporters of the Bush/Cheney Administration. This may explain the otherwize puzzling word choices Dr. Blanchard made to play down Whittington's injuries, especially before the heart attack made that more difficult to do.
So was Cheney drinking, and was there anything inappropriate about this hunting party? We don't know, and nobody's investigating. There's reason to be suspicious. We do have the suggestion that drinking was taking place, we have inconsistencies and a pattern of deception in Armstrong's statements, we have a shooting injury that's far more serious than originally claimed ... and a Sheriff's Department and national press that have already proclaimed the VP innocent of all wrongdoing.
I was right to call this Cheney's Chappaquiddick. The parallels get stronger every day. Of course, Chappaquiddick happened almost forty years ago, and Ted Kennedy's turned his personal life around. Cheney's actions happened this weekend. There's reason to be suspicious of the Vice President's behavior, starting with the cover-up itself.
They're trying to spin it as just a badly handled case of press relations, but it's could be a whole lot more than that.
You are correct. Plus it said there may have been beer at the lunch. And she implied it was non-hunters that would have had any beer. Plus the incident was at 5:30pm. I wonder if Brit will ask?
But for NBC to pull it from their story, it had to be weak. I would think normally they would make it a headline.
I don't care if it was carved in fine Italian marble. Giving an interview to a news channel is not "ducking the press."
OK. Everyone does it. Let's all get along.
Let's MoveON.org.
Dick - you dirty rotten scoundrel
This was to be a haliburton secret oil exploration trip using the Clampett method.
he had Granny, Ellie Mae and Jethro along.
The lawyer looked like a revnoor
Oh, my no. Why, the thing has dropped right off the MSM radar screen...
except that:
Cheney wasn't at a drunken party all night
and he wasn't with a younger woman (not his wife) alone
and he wasn't driving
and he didnt drive off a bridge
and he didn't leave her to drown while he swam away
and he didn't ask someone else to claim they were driving
other than that, yeah they are a lot alike
(stupid as this is I love it any time someone brings up the oldsmobile commander and Mary Jo Kopechne- who gave her life so that another Kennedy wouldn't make it to the white house)
It happened at 5:50.
And I have great faith in Brit Hume to ask ALL the pertinent questions.
He is apparently incapable of distinguishing between Muslim extremists' threats of real violence and Ann Coulter's sarcastic humorous statements.
Our local talk radio host just mentioned that Cheney was quite a drinker in college and got two DWIs. That's all the proof they need apparently.
Live thread here to post comments from the interview with the vice president. Excerpts to be released starting at 2:00.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1579131/posts
Yes!
But doesn't the heading say this is from Yahoo?
Too bad you didn't include all the highighted links to "prove" the story true. They are all from lib sites! There are 0 facts in any of this crap! Only opinion!
"Our local talk radio host just mentioned that Cheney was quite a drinker in college and got two DWIs. That's all the proof they need apparently."
Bush also drank in college and got a DUI. At least that is what the MSM reported on four days before the 2000 election.
See my #105. Hit the link. This editorial is just one out of many alleging 'drinking and shooting' while cavorting type reports. It will be even worse tomorrow. CNN is sending a reporting team to start digging dirt. The din and buzzz will get louder and louder. That is why it was such a mistake for the V.P. to not handle the news through more formal channels in D.C.
Whatever did or not go down in this incident, Cheney did not leave the man lying in the field and run away. The man got instant medical assistance.
Of course, the WH knows the MSM press will have a field day with it. And is. And was. And will be forever and ever. Will skip the amen.
At the very moment we think they CAN'T get any worse- they show we are once again WRONG.
No class, no character...merely vultures.
In the *back* of the head! :P
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