The other hunter, Pamela Willeford
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.
There's a live thread now for the Cheney interview; excerpts of which will be released throughout the afternoon.
:) Thanks..
Hllary thinks Cheney should be more open about the entire matter
Hillary should worry about Bubba being less open with his zipper. What a loon.
How, by not killing anymore women?
And hey, if Ted can '[turn] his personal life around' maybe the VP can too!
Excellent. Thank you.
Get ready for fat Teddy to be the BIGGEST blowhard/critic of this whole mess!
I swear, I think he has actually FORGOTTEN what HE did all those years ago, based on his arrogant behavior!
The other hunter, Pamela Willeford
But the Bush hating lunatic media and their Democratic patrons can't just be gracious and allow that people do things they might regret or that unfortunate accidents may occur. EVERYTHING has got to have a conspiratorial component to them. The DemoCRITES accuse Bush of dividing the nation, but they take EVERY opportunity that arises, no matter how crass, to attack the administration and anything Republicans do. And the media just allows it. But I guess Bush just by virtue of daring to be president when Democrats don't want him to be is enough to accuse Bush of being divisive. God spare me another minute of having to deal with these freaks and their insanity. I honestly can't take anymore of these foaming idiots.
Thank God the MSM and the D's have these barking moonbats for allies. This article is so stupid from so many angles it defies belief. Just one example: Why would any rationale supporter of Dems bring up Chappaquiddick in any context? Let alone one where a compare and contrast analysis would make the D's look so bad
If one-tenth of this is true, the Donks better get used to saying "President Rice".
bump
My thoughts exactly. Or, should I say, EggsAckley?
"I honestly can't take anymore of these foaming idiots."
You want foaming? Go over to Craigslist and go to the politics threads. There, Cheney is a Zionist shill who is squeezing the blood from Muslim children to make oil for his friends at Halliburton.
People who write this kind of thing are slime. The Austin American-Statesman story Monday said Mr. Whittington's wife, Mercedes, accompanied him to the hospital. She was almost certainly with him on the hunting trip. If anyone cares, Harry Whittington is an outstanding gentlemen who deserves much better than what lots of folks, including more than a few freepers, are handing out.
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