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.
Shocking. We find out that a politician isn't a straight shooter.
I hope that stands for Sewerage and Water Board.
Yes, we don't want to go agaist the grain.
Why would V.P. Cheney shoot former V.P. Dan Quayle? Maybe you meant quail hunting.
Why? THEY'RE not funny. This thread is hysterical! The only reason we're having such fun with this is that Cheney's friend is ok. He IS going to be the "butt" of some jokes for awhile. =)
I guess Cheney won't be going to the Budweiser Shootout now.
Make up your flippin' mind!
Is it a "public forum", in which "Anyone is free to respond to anything and anyone they want", or, am I to go by the PRIVATE FR-mail you sent me, telling me to "leve" you alone, and, telling me, "So go ***K yourself and have a nice day"?
That was an FR-mail message, like your initial attack, out of the blue. I'd sent you NO FR-mail prior to that. You took it upon yourself to escalate your attacks to the "private" level, apparantly not satisfied with the results you obtained via your PUBLIC insults and personal attacks.
And you tell ME to "take your medication"?
WHAT is your major malfunction???
You are starting to grate on the nerves. I am going to try to ignore you. Unless you post or email me something extremely noxious, I will make every effort to ignore your ravings.
ROFL...Ten Ways Dick Cheney Can Kill You.
I wish Mr. Cheney would invite Chris Matthews on his next hunting trip. Matthews' panel show today was non-stop Cheney-bashing. Cheney should also practice some of those moves on Joe Klein and Norah O'Donnell, who joined Matthews in his Hatefest today.
LMAO......you know.... the only thing Cheney needs to say in response to a stoooooopid question from the press would be....... "Tell ya what. Let's go hunting and talk about it."
Good one!
Of course, Sarah Brady had to chime in on this:
James and Sarah Brady Comment on the Vice President's Hunting Mishap
2/12/2006 5:40:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 202-289-5792
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney's reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.
"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," said Jim Brady. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot."
"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Out of the blue? You need help, there isn't people crawling out from under rocks out to get you here. You seem paranoid, take the blue pill.
WHAT is your major malfunction???
What's yours? Maybe your reality filter is broke.
You are starting to grate on the nerves. I am going to try to ignore you. Unless you post or email me something extremely noxious, I will make every effort to ignore your ravings.
I will believe that when I see it. But if you do see the need to respond to me could you please put it through your reality filter one extra time just for me.
Ok you two....back to your corners.....Cheney will be out in just a minute to referee....
If we are to ban firearms on account of hunting accidents, what, pray tell, are we to do with motor vehicles?
Indeed. We don't want to go off half-cocked.
Right, I'm so sure James Brady said that. Sarah probably "translated" his comments to the willing Commie press, just as Edith Wilson "translated" for her husband Woodrow. That poor guy has to be in hell.
Can't go off half-cocked? That's wad I thought.
Now THAT was a cutting riposte.
ROTFLOL!
You have about a month's worth of posts in that ONE!
What an absolutely GREAT post!
I choose C.
I think he was just practicing today.
He's waiting for another day.
Read my tagline...;o)
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