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Harry Whittington, the man who former Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot while they were hunting quail on a Texas ranch 17 years ago, has died. He was 95. Whittington died at his home Saturday in Austin, family friend Karl Rove said Monday. Before Whittington was thrust into the national spotlight after the accidental shooting, the attorney was long known for helping build the Republican Party in Texas into the dominant political force it is today and for being the man governors went to when they needed to clean up troubled state agencies. […] Cheney was criticized for breaking a...

Cheney accident not unusual (But you know The New York Slimes By REAVIS WORTHAM "Ultimately, I am the guy who pulled the trigger and fired the round that hit Harry," said Vice President Dick Cheney. -snip- "It's bad, all right," I said. "But unfortunately it isn't uncommon for people to be hit while hunting quail or dove. Hunting is dangerous."

Eyewitness statements about Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of his quail hunting partner largely confirm previous accounts with some minor discrepancies, according to affidavits obtained today by the Houston Chronicle.The affidavits, released by the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department, give the most detailed accounts to date of the events leading up to the Feb. 11 shooting of Republican activist and Austin attorney Harry Whittington."Mr. Cheney, not knowing that Harry had made his way into the shooting area, shot at the bird," wrote Michael "Bo" Hubert, the El Campo-based hunting guide. "And at that time is when Harry was shot."Whittington, Cheney...

"I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine." — George W. Bush, Feb. 16, 2006 "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." — George W. Bush, Sept. 2, 2005 Some of us have always thought of Dick Cheney, vice president of the United States, former secretary of defense, industrial magnate and general mover-and-shaker, as The Brains of the Outfit. We still do, but intelligence isn't everything in a leader. Or even the most important thing — like judgment or honesty or prudence or modesty or, well, name your own favorite character trait. Lest we forget, the smartest...

Hunting for a StoryRadical Islam and democracy. Plus the press corps takes a hit in covering Dick Cheney's hunting accident and more.Monday, February 20, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Paul Gigot: This week on "The Journal Editorial Report," uncertainty in the Middle East. Israel contemplates new sanctions as Hamas takes the helm of the Palestinian Authority. Will radical Islam derail Bush's democracy agenda in the region? The fallout from Dick Cheney's hunting accident, whose reputation is taking a bigger beating, the vice president's or the White House Press Corps'. The panel weighs in on those topics and our "Hits and Misses"...

Alan Simpson: Cheney Coverage Was 'Crap' Former Sen. Alan Simpson blasted the media's obsessive reporting on Dick Cheney hunting accident on Sunday, saying reporters typically focus on nothing but "controversy, crap and confusion." "How are we to trust [the press], after a whole week of absolute dribble, and babble, and people, you know, interviewing themselves," he told "Fox News Sunday." Noting that Washington is filled with "good people doing good things," Simspon fumed: "You'll never find it if you just follow the Washington media. You'll never know the good. All you get is controversy, crap and confusion." Simpson said reporters...

For more than a week now, the press has been beating up on Vice President Dick Cheney for his handling – or, rather, for his mis-handling – of how the accidental shooting of his friend while on a hunting trip in Texas was disclosed. The theme that runs through all this criticism is that the Vice President made a terrible mistake in not arranging for news of the shooting to be disclosed immediately, rather than waiting 14 hours to put out the word. But what if Dick Cheney hadn’t stiffed the press? Let’s conduct what scientists call a “thought experiment.”...

What really happened in the brushy South Texas wild that day? How one shot turned a genteel quail hunt into a political crisis? The delicate and the dangerous meet in the ranch lands of South Texas. In the winter, quail gather in the soft gold of prairie sedge, but snakes, scorpions and wild-boar-like javelina lurk too. In 1999 a fourth-generation South Texas rancher named Tobin Armstrong testified before Congress that he sometimes found illegal immigrants dead of dehydration in the unforgiving brush of his 49,300-acre ranch. It was there that Vice President Dick Cheney, out with a hunting party that...

The editorial is only availible to NYTimes paying costumers.The editorial in today's local paper by Bob Herbert of the times had just one line of any note ..."This story is never going away.Harry Whittington is Dick Cheney's Monica....This will stick to Cheney like Crazy glue and that's bad news for the Bush administration."

NBC White House correspondent David Gregory ate a little crow Sunday on this "Meet The Press," apologizing for his arrogant behavior during White House press briefings dealing with the shooting of a hunting companion by Vice President Cheney. Reacting to the storm of criticism leveled by the public at the Washington press corps for complaining that they were not told immediately about the incident, leaving the job of reporting it to a small-town Texas newspaper, Gregory apologized for his boorish behavior. "I think I made a mistake,” he told host Tim Russert. "I think it was inappropriate for me to...

The vice president's decision to talk only to Fox News -- which Democrats maintain has a pro-Bush bias -- enabled Cheney to dodge an adversarial no-holds-barred news conference with an agitated White House press corps. That rankled some Democrats, including Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York. ''Doing an exclusive interview with any single news organization is not enough," Schumer said. ''The vice president hasn't had a press conference in three and a half years, and he ought to have one to clear the air not only on this issue, but more importantly on the many other issues that have...

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist told CBS "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer on Sunday that Democrats were playing "partisan politics" with Dick Cheney's hunting accident last weekend - a charge that left Mr. Schieffer fuming. "What America does not want to see is what happened right afterwards, and that is that the Democratic leadership tried to inject partisan politics into what is a very, very tragic accident," First told Schieffer, who bristled at the remarks. "But Senator," the veteran newsman protested, "ah - I mean - didn't - didn't - shouldn't [the hunting accident] have been made public but...

Clinton: Secrecy Sparked Shooting Reaction 23 minutes ago Former President Clinton said Sunday the Bush administration's "enormous penchant for secrecy" sparked the strong reaction to Vice President Dick Cheney's shooting mishap. "We have people quite often who are shot in quail incidents, so I didn't feel the need to get into the pile-on," Clinton said Sunday on ABC's "Good Morning America." Cheney has been criticized for not disclosing the shooting on Feb. 11 of Texas lawyer Harry Whittington until the following day. "I think the White House should have said something about it sooner," Clinton said. "I think that it's...

When Harry Whittington strode out of the Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, wearing a blazer, a crisp white shirt and a smile, as well as a bruise and a few small scabs, to face the media last Thursday, the whole artful and painfully constructed edifice of the liberal communications industry and their Democratic hand maidens came crashing down around them.

JFK, RFK and Now ... Harry Whittington? by Patrick Hurley Posted Feb 19, 2006 As I sat in the Phoenix airport Friday afternoon, I heard the breathless excitement of CNN intruding on my consciousness. Did we invade North Korea? Did Ariel Sharon die? Had Iran finally dropped a nuclear bomb on Israel? Those stories pale in comparison to the liberal media's latest life or death breaking news flash: VICE-PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY HAD AGREED TO AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH FOX NEWS CONCERNING THE SHOOTING OF HIS HUNTING MATE, HARRY WHITTINGTON! Stop the presses! This developing news bulleting went on to detail...

" [T]he debate playing out in the blogosphere, cable airwaves and on talk radio pits the Vice President against an allegedly left-wing, overly cynical, prissy White House press corps in a tizzy because it wasn't the first to know and angry because it hates the President and Vice President anyway. " That's exactly right. And it comes from NBC's David Gregory. Gregory goes on to announce that this description is "nonsense," but of course Gregory has not allowed himself to be questioned outside of his network. He doesn't return calls and he won't make himself available for questions about what...

Spoiled brat media Feb 16, 2006 by Thomas Sowell ( bio | archive | contact ) The first revolt of the American colonists against their British rulers was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the shot heard round the world." Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident has now become the shot heard round the Beltway.  The accidental shooting of Harry Whittington, while he was on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney, has nothing to do with government policy or the Vice President's official duties but the mainstream media have gone ballistic over it nevertheless.  They are also angry that the...

Bloggers Battle Over Cheney Misfire (Feb. 18) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's weekend misfire brought verbal combat to a boil between left- and right-leaning bloggers. The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department has closed its investigation into Cheney's accidental shooting of hunting pal Harry Whittington and issued a report that largely supports the vice president's account of the weekend's events. But that hasn't stopped the shooting in cyberspace, where liberal bloggers were particularly riled up over the role alcohol might have played in the mishap. Many bloggers on the left also smelled a cover up, while many right-leaning bloggers said it was...

It seems more like a dream a vice president might have than something that might actually befall one. It might also inspire a great fairy tale someday. I imagine it being recited to the children of a magical, peaceful world to come — a utopia of enduring gentleness that accounts for its origins with the following fable: "And so, after decades at the heights of power helping to mount and administer great battles that caused many thousands of deaths and injuries, the aging leader set out one afternoon into the fields of his beloved homeland in pursuit of a bird...

Dick Cheney's hunting accident could not get the "Dump Dick" reaction or traction the MSM was hoping for. I can easily visualize the bloodthirsty MSM having prayer vigils, pleading with their god(s) to take Cheney's victim, that one tough cookie, Harry Whittington, off the face of the earth so that the Veep could be forever hounded by the Libs, arrested, and then impeached. "The best laid plans of mice (vermin), not men" waiting in their dark cellars under the New York Times for something to chew on. The RIM (Reality Impaired Media) is somewhat like the American Public Schools...