Dick Cheney pops a Cap in a Hunter says he is sorry

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Cheney's to give his first interview on the subject today. You'll never guess which channel.

Yeah - he's really going out on a limb there. Might as well interview himself.

[germanos]

Originally posted by Tiamat
Well catch me naked and slap me silly! Of course he's in good spirits wouldn't you be? I'd be planning on how I was going to be spending the millions of dollars I was going to be sueing for or at the very least settling out of court for. He is quite a prominant lawyer here in Austin.

from the BBC

Despite the heart problem, doctors said Mr Whittington was now on the road to recovery.

He is now sitting up and eating regularly - and even preparing some legal work, according to a spokesman for the Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.

[Timexwatch]

Funny story heard in the office today-

Bob Livingston (former Congressman, almost Speaker of the House) shot a person in my office and left over 100 pellets in him. He sets off metal detectors to this day. He still has monthly meetings with Bob. So I'm guessing that there are no hard feelings.

Also, Senator Conrad Burns was shot on a hunting trip. So these things happen, even to politicos.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Cheney's to give his first interview on the subject today. You'll never guess which channel.

One named after a small animal thats hunted?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
Funny story heard in the office today-

Bob Livingston (former Congressman, almost Speaker of the House) shot a person in my office

one helluva day at the office?

[Timexwatch]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


one helluva day at the office?

Must have been. Given the amount of metal in him, he's pretty much Iron Man at this point.

[atomant]

Originally posted by Sandman
Quail hunting... sad.

I refer to my previous post.... perhaps cheney was exposing a poltical metaphor or sending a message to a poltiical opponent in this instance.

Afterall Quail....Dan.....Quail..... Dan Quail!!!!!

[DRoseDARs]

Amazing, Cheney almost sounds Human in this article. I honestly don't know what to make of it. I want to believe he's being humble about all this, even in the delay, but given his entire life has been devoted to the Dark Side...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060215/...r_wh/cheney_19;_ylt=Anhr0AsvBbORhIXqt.ymWItqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW 04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Cheney Breaks Silence on Hunting Accident

By NEDRA PICKLER and LYNN BREZOSKY, Associated Press Writers 2 hours, 45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Vice President
Dick Cheney on Wednesday accepted full blame for shooting a fellow hunter and defended his decision to not publicly disclose the accident until the following day. He called it "one of the worst days of my life."
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"I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney told Fox News Channel in his first public comments since the shooting Saturday in south Texas.

Cheney described seeing 78-year-old Harry Whittington fall to the ground after he pulled the trigger while aiming at a covey of quail.

"The image of him falling is something I'll never ever be able to get out of my mind," Cheney said. "I fired, and there's Harry falling. It was, I'd have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment."

Cheney has been under intense political pressure to speak out about the shooting incident, which has become a public relations embarrassment and potential political liability for the White House. Until Wednesday, Cheney had refused to comment on why he withheld information about the shooting, which prolonged the controversy and made him the butt of jokes.

Cheney was soft-spoken and somber during the interview with Fox's Brit Hume.

"You can talk about all of the other conditions that exist at the time but that's the bottom line and — it was not Harry's fault," he said. "You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

Cheney said he had had a beer at lunch that day, but nobody was drinking when they went back out to hunt several hours later.

Texas officials said the shooting was an accident, and no charges have been brought against the vice president.

A report that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued Monday said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney.

"Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

"I ran over to him," Cheney said. "He was laying there on his back, obviously, bleeding. You could see where the shot struck him."

He said he has no idea if he hit a bird because he was focused on Whittington.

"I said, `Harry, I had no idea you were there.' He didn't respond," Cheney said.

Whittington was reported doing well at a Texas hospital Wednesday, a day after doctors said that a pellet entered his heart and he had what they called "a mild heart attack."

Hospital officials said the Texan, though still listed in intensive care, had a normal heart rhythm again Wednesday afternoon and was sitting up in a chair, eating and planning to do some legal work in his room.

Cheney has been roundly criticized for failing to tell the public about the accident until the next day. He said he thought it made sense to let the owner of the ranch where it happened reveal the accident on the local newspaper's Web site Sunday morning.

"I thought that was the right call," Cheney said. "I still do."

Cheney said he agreed that ranch owner Katharine Armstrong should make the story public, because she was an eyewitness, because she grew up on the ranch and because she is "an acknowledged expert in all of this" as a past head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He also agreed with her decision to choose the local newspaper as the way to get the news out.

"I thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting and then it would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the Web site, which is the way it went out and I thought that was the right call," Cheney said.

"What do you think now?" he was asked.

"I still do," Cheney responded. "The accuracy was enormously important. I had no press person with me."

Armstrong told reporters that Whittington made a mistake by not announcing himself as he returned to the hunting line after breaking off to retrieve a downed bird. But Cheney, an avid and longtime hunter, said Whittington was not to blame.

Through hospital officials, Whittington has declined to comment.

"He still kind of wonders what all the hoopla is about," said Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.

Cheney was using No. 7 1/2 shot from a 28-gauge shotgun. Shotgun pellets typically are made of steel or lead; the pellets in No. 7 1/2 shot are just under one-tenth of an inch in diameter.

The pellet that traveled to Whittington's heart was either touching or embedded in the heart muscle near the top chambers, called the atria, officials said.

___

Lynn Brezosky contributed to this report from Corpus Christi.

___

On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

[techumseh]

(white) wash, spin, repeat.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
Must have been. Given the amount of metal in him, he's pretty much Iron Man at this point.

He's gonna have a heck of a time getting past the metal detector at the airport.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
He's gonna have a heck of a time getting past the metal detector at the airport.

I can see it now....
[Fade in on airport security line]
[Sound of metal detector going off]
Security: Step over here, sir.
Whittington: Oh, it's just bird shot.
Security: Bird shot?
Whittington: Yes. I was hunting with the Vice President, and he shot me.
Security: Oh, a wiseguy, eh? I think you need to come this way for a full body cavity search.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by techumseh
(white) wash, spin, repeat.

Yep, he's using this whole incident to try and sound like an actual human


You know after originally blaming the guy he shot in the first place


Probably if nobody criticized him that afternoon he would have stuck to the original story

Why the hell did he shoot him? That's not like a SMALL mistake to make. I mean the dude was hunting quail, is he trigger happy or what???

The dude launched an illegal invasion based off of weapons of mass destruction that wasn't there so what's to stop him from shooting someone whena quail wasn't there same prinicple.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Some people are just ridiculous. Using the VP's actual grief (and yes, I do believe he is sad over this) as something to attack the administration over.

I have no love for the Bush Administration, but this is just far too low, even for some on this site.

I still can't believe that people are asking whether it was really a mistake? Has knee-jerk Bush hating made them lost their humanity? Is it like the dark side of the force?

[Guynemer]

Spot on, Imran.

[Timexwatch]

Anyone besides Oerdin read Kos? The latest theory is that Cheney was drinking and that may have lead to it. I don't see how one beer a couple of hours beforehand would affect any man his age.