"Anyone up for a little hunting trip?"
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.
Does this mean he'll miss the Budwieser Shootout?
Sure, right after Teddy Kennedy's prosecuted for his successful murder.
"10 ways Dick Cheney can kill you."
Oh, gosh that was fuuny.
If it had been Clinton, Gore, or Kerry on some phoney hunting trip they would have dug up some other poor sucker to take the fall for this.
lol true.
They keep coyotes as pets? Or are they just fattenng up the rabbits for the yotes?
Cheney clips this dude while hunting, He, after conferring with family and friends decides to step down as VP for the benefit of the people. Condi, rises to VP and decides after a while "Yeah, I think I'd like to be president."
/MoonBat rant or Rovian Checkmate?
Thoughts or comments?
PS - I am not a wacko, so no flaming me! :o) as if that last line would stop someone...
Under 50 yards that stuff will raise a welt.
I think I would rather be hit with one of Ford's golf balls.
Holy crap I almost forgot myself!
I'm sure they weren't hunting quayle...... :)
I think Cheney should go on tv ASAP and invite Howard Dean to go hunting with him. lol
This really sucks. There are forces trying to end hunting in this country and Cheney is now their best argument.
Cheney shot the former vice president? What are the odds?
Better to shoot someone with a quail load than a pheasant load, if you want to look on the bright side anyway. Because I've heard he likes to hunt pheasants too.
Just sometimes. :-)
I get it now.
RATS in Congress will probably call for a criminal investigation. Is the Sheriff in that county a RAT? I almost wish some staffer had stepped up and taken responsibility and kept VP Cheney out of this.
As opposed to John "Can I get me a huntin' license here?" Kerry, Cheney really does go hunting and it's not even a photo op.
And I'm sorry his friend was hurt in a hunting accident.
Not with the Secret Service standing around, and armed to the teeth.
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