Commentary
White House may joke about Cheney shooting fellow hunter, but Whittington's condition is more serious than disclosed
By Bev Conover
Online Journal Editor & Publisher


Feb 14, 2006, 16:37

The first hint that the condition of Texas attorney Harry Whittington, shot Saturday by Vice Dictator Dick Cheney while quail hunting, was more serious than the White House or ranch owner Katharine Armstrong had let on came from the Wayne Madsen Report today and has been confirmed the Associated Press.

Buried in an article by AP reporter Nedra Pickler, White House Finds Humor in Hunting Mishap, were the following two paragraphs:

Whittington, who had been in stable condition after being moved from intensive care, suffered "a minor heart attack" Tuesday morning, hospital officials said. He was immediately moved back to the intensive care unit for further treatment, said Peter Banko, the administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Texas.

Banko said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week to make sure more shot doesn't move to other organs or to other part of his body.

Very funny, isn't it? Apparently White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who offered lame excuses yesterday as to why it took 18 hours to make Cheney's so-called "accidental" shooting public, thinks so, because today he made quips, according to Pickler, "that the burnt orange school colors of the University of Texas championship football team that was visiting the White House shouldn't be confused for hunter's safety wear."

"The orange that they're wearing is not because they're concerned that the vice president may be there," joked White House press secretary Scott McClellan, following the lead of late-night television comedians. "That's why I'm wearing it."

Cheney, as usual, is hunkered down in some undisclosed location, while his office spin team tries to place as much responsibility for what happened on the victim, because Whittington failed to call out as he came up behind Cheney.

As the indomitable Molly Ivins yesterday wrote in Cheney Shoots a Texas Liberal, "Cheney adviser Mary Matalin said of her boss, 'He was not careless or incautious [and did not] violate of any of the [rules]. He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to do.' Of course he did, Ms. Matalin, he shot Harry Whittington."

Said Ivins, "It’s hard to think of a crowd less likely to take responsibility for anything they have done or not done than this bunch. They’re certainly good at preaching responsibility to others -- and blaming other people for everything that goes wrong on their watch."

Might Cheney, his Secret Service contingent and the others in his hunting party, know that poor old Harry was seriously wounded and not just grazed by birdshot pellets? Had Cheney been drinking, something he's been known to do -- like his Oval Office boss -- and has two DUI arrests to prove it? Would that explain why he put off being interviewed by the Kenedy County, Texas, sheriff's office until Sunday?

New York Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez noted, "Local sheriffs in Kenedy County reportedly complained that Secret Service agents prevented them from talking to the vice president immediately after the incident.

"The Secret Service, on the other hand, says that it reported the shooting to the sheriff's office an hour after it happened, and that Cheney eventually did talk to local authorities.

"The Cheney interview, like so much of this story, was delayed until Sunday morning."

So how would the sheriff's office know that Cheney had not been drinking, as it claimed in its press release, further stating it was satisfied that this was no more than a hunting accident?

Madsen also reported, "WMR has learned that this incident is not the first involving Cheney and hunting accidents. According to informed sources on Maryland's Eastern Shore, two years ago Cheney was shooting at ducks from a duck blind in Trappe, a Maryland Eastern shore town where former Secretary of State James Baker III maintains a residence. The sources reveal that Cheney nearly accidentally shot half of his hunting party and Secret Service detail. Eyewitnesses to the Maryland duck hunting incident claim that Cheney is 'trigger happy' and a 'maniac with a gun.'"

Trigger happy?" A "maniac with a gun?" That's quite a contrast to the tales now being told about Cheney being so "safety conscious."

A number of hunting experts say while it would have been prudent for Whittington to announce himself, the ultimate responsibility for not hitting others is the shooter's.