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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The lawyer shot by Vice President Dick Cheney during a hunting trip was being discharged from a hospital Friday and told reporters he was deeply sorry for all the trouble Cheney had faced over the past week. Cheney, speaking to the Wyoming Legislature on Friday, also alluded to the shooting as he thanked lawmakers for their half-minute standing ovation, saying the warm greeting was especially welcome "when you've had a very long week." "Thankfully, Harry Whittington is on the mend and doing well," Cheney said. In Texas, Whittington wore a suit and tie as he gave...

Harry Whittington, the man shot by Vice President Dick Cheney last weekend, spoke to reporters as he was released from Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. He did not take questions. Here is a transcript of his statement. (Video available)

Some observers have compared the White House’s handling of Dick Cheney’s accident to Vince Foster’s suspicious death in the summer of 1993. This comparison has been drawn mostly on the basis of delays in disclosure in both cases.We know now the Clinton White House actively withheld information on this regrettable incident from the press, starting with the initial delay while they apparently worked on a major cover up. Numerous problems with the investigation ensued and serious misconduct was later exposed. White House Chief Counsel Bernard Nussbaum was eventually rebuked for mishandling this matter.To test this comparison I researched reporting done on...

To the Editor: Re "Places, Everyone. Action!" (column, Feb. 16): David Brooks laments the lack of a "normal human response" (sympathy) to Dick Cheney's hunting accident. ........

For all of us at this "small newspaper in South Texas" or as the host of MSNBC's "The Situation" Tucker Carlson says "podunk paper," it's enlightening — and sometimes embarrassing — to look at our big brothers and sisters in the national media on a story we each are covering. The first step we could all see coming. Someone should have given White House press secretary Scott McClellan a blindfold as he stood at the podium Monday afternoon. The White House press corps spent the previous day stewing about how the White House had failed to deliver a press conference...

Brit Hume's interview with VP Dick Cheney attracted more than 2.1 million viewers on Wednesday night, making Special Report the #1 program on cable news. The 6 p.m. time slot delivered 2,101,000 total viewers, including 513,000 in the 25-54 demographic. Hume beat O'Reilly by a few thousand viewers in P2+...

Some of wackiest of the wacko left are now saying that the accidental shooting of Harry Whittington by Dick Cheney last weekend wasn't an accident after all, but rather a warning to "Scooter" Libby not to testify against Cheney in the upcoming "Plamegate" trial. Barry Saunders at newsobserver.com writes: Accident my eye. Or rather, Harry Whittington's eye. If you believe it was just an accident that Vice President Dick Cheney shot his hunting companion last weekend, you obviously have never seen "The Godfather" movies. Just as surely as a fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest means "Luca Brasi sleeps with...

Some say Dick Cheney is toast. He's too hot to handle, throw him over the side if he won't drop himself into the waves. Don't look now, but that isn't water surrounding the Bush ship of state. It's gasoline. The issue titled "Dick Cheney" is just one of many embers. Have you ever noticed how on a scale of one to 10, every untoward event in the life of the Bush presidency goes straight to a 10? The Abu Ghraib photos? A 10 forever. Dick Cheney catching a hunting buddy with some birdshot? An instant 10. The Bush National Guard...

When George W. Bush, then a gubernatorial candidate, accidentally killed a protected deer during a dove shoot in 1994, he and his press aide swiftly decided on a strategy: confess fast. "People watch the way you handle things. They get a feeling they like and trust you or they don't," said a biography of Mr Bush.

Breaking on Fox.

There are few less edifying sights than Terry McAuliffe in full battle cry. But alas there was no avoiding him after the Cheney hunting accident. There he was demanding to know why the vice president waited 22 hours before informing the press and shouting that if Al Gore had done something like this he'd be in Leavenworth by nightfall (a dubious if pleasing supposition). The White House press corps was even more insufferable. One reporter asked, "Is it proper for the vice president to offer his resignation or has he offered his resignation?" Another demanded, "Scott (McClellan), would this be...

Texas police have cleared US Vice President Dick Cheney of any wrongdoing over the weekend mishap in which he shot a 73-year-old hunting companion in the face. They say no charges will be filed. Sheriff Ramon Salinas says an investigation had determined Mr Cheney shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington by accident, therefore no legal action was needed. Mr Cheney sprayed Mr Whittington with birdshot on Saturday when he turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch. Mr Whittington is expected to be released from hospital next week.

Twenty-seven percent (27%) of Americans believe that the recent hunting accident involving Dick Cheney raises serious questions about his ability to serve as Vice President. Twice as many, 57%, say it was "just one of those very embarrassing things that happens to all of us." The survey was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday night. Cheney spoke publicly about the incident for the first time on Wednesday. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Americans say they have been following news about this story somewhat or very closely. Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Vice President while 41% have an...

Poetic justiceJackson Heights: Vice President Cheney and his friend were out killing innocent animals. They got what they deserved. Charles Handelman

Questions about why Vice President Dick Cheney did not tell the public that he had accidentally shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington during a quail hunting outing in Texas on Saturday continue to persist. Now the White House is under fire for not releasing information on the Cheney shooting quickly enough.

The Moonbats are out tonight and howling! Dick Morris, just on Fox, told Hannity that the reason Cheney didn't immediately notify the Royal Dinosaur White House Press Corps of the accident was 'because he needed a day to sober up first before being questioned.' The Libs are imploding!

RUSH: Brian in Wilmington, North Carolina, I know you're still out there, because I know you're here every day, Brian, and I know a lot of you libs are out there. Let me tell you: I think this is probably everything that you're looking for. The reason that it took so long to release details of the hunting accident -- Dick Cheney and Harry Whittington -- is that Whittington is actually dead, and it took them about eight hours to go find a double for Mr. Whittington, because he's actually brain dead. He's so injured that he's being held...

WASHINGTON - It's not Dick Cheney's hunting mishap that worries Republicans. It's his other scandal — the CIA leak case and the threat it poses to the embattled vice president. Republican activists acknowledge that the accidental shooting of Cheney's friend is the talk of mainstream America and has made the vice president the butt of jokes. But they do not expect political fallout from the shooting or the clumsy way in which it was disclosed. "It's hard to believe that anybody can make Dick Cheney a sympathetic figure," said Rep. Tom Cole (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla. "That's what the...

FEBRUARY 16--Five days after Vice President Dick Cheney shot a hunting partner, a Texas sheriff today released his department's report on the incident, which investigators have formally classified as an accident. A copy of the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department report, released this afternoon by Sheriff Ramon Salinas, can be found below. The sheriff's report includes information provided to deputies by assorted witnesses as well as Cheney and Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was struck in the face, neck, and chest by the vice president's wayward birdshot. Cheney was interviewed Sunday morning, more than 14 hours after the Saturday afternoon...

VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney knew where to go when he finally decided to tell his story about the accidental shooting of a hunting buddy. Cheney went to Fox News, where he was guided gently through the events by interviewer Brit Hume. Cheney has not submitted himself to open-ended news conference questioning in more than three years -- and it's clear that he did not regard the aftermath of a Texas shooting as cause for him to face a White House press corps that is openly agitated about his efforts to control the story.