Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter

AP ^ | 02/11/06 | NEDRA PICKLER

[bayourant]

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.

[samantha]

Oh well with that brain fart, I glad I did not try to shoot a quail with you nearby, you may have ended up with a swiss cheese tush. ROTFLMAO..............

[advance_copy]

If you don't know, you don't shoot. I like Cheney, but he screwed up.

Much as I've liked and participated in the humor here, hunting accidents are no joke. "If you don't know, don't shoot" is absolutely right. The Vice President, who probably feels horrible right now, should (and will likely) admit that he messed up and acknowledge that safety must come first when hunting.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

I know. I should probably have added a disclaimer. :O)

The desperate flogging of the MSM on any issue that could remotely taint Bush and the 'Pubbies is really pathetic, yet something to behold, as the MSM and Dims continue the embrace of their ever-decreasing relevence.

[kms61]

I hope you are being sarcastic.

[RushCrush]

If I promise to host that myself, can I put it on my FR page?

[EricT.]

LOL, so THAT'S how you get invited on a hunt. Guess I'll have to order me one of those.

There's gotta lots of guys that would like to take you hunting. I would have to ask my wife's permission first. LoL.

[Liz]

Oh, I dunno. Not as funny as Al Gore with a gun.

[Phsstpok]

I love Michelle Malkin and her readers:

Reader C.T. writes: "I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy ."

Prescription for weak kneed conservatives: repeat above statement as needed.

[SJackson]

Back in the '60s during grad school, I was hunting quail in southern Ohio and a covey took off just in front of me. I followed a bird and my sights came across a classmate's head--just stopped in my tracks and did not fire. I will never forget that.

I had a similar experience the first or second time I went hunting (12 or 13). Four hunters in a line, unsuccessful pheasant hunting I believe, one of them an "observer" lagging, several rabbits broke from brush. When asked why I didn't shoot, they were in my zone, I explained ---- was in my vision. They figured I got "buck fever", I know better. You have to know where the people and dogs are.

[MistrX]

Was his name Scooter "Dead-men-tell-no-tales" Libby?

I think you have him mistaken for Vince "Please Don't Shoot, Hillary!" Foster.

[JustaCowgirl]

Too tight? Naahhh.

[pepperhead]

Smarter was tongue in cheek. Within the last decade or so I remember Gore, Bush, Kerry, Clinton in hunting exhibitions, always birds. I'm sure there are other examples, but why always birds? Obviously they presume that's viewed more favorably than hunting something on four legs.

Why birds? They are easier to hunt and you can get alot more of them. Plus you don't have to worry as much about someone hitting your dogs as much by accident.

[Mamzelle]

Just as long as no dogs were hurt!

[Fawn]

WHO WANTS TO BET ME THAT KATIE COURIC IS WETTING HER PANTS RIGHT NOW.....AT THE THOUGHT THAT THIS WILL BE THE FIRST WORDS OUT OF HER MOUTH TOMORROW MORNING.

[SJackson]

You never heard of Hunters actually shooting themselves. They are the victims!!! People that live on the edge of woods that Hunters use have been victims and how can you blame a Hunter everytime he fires and does not hit his target and the victim is raking leaves and gets shot in his own yard. If you run into my firing line at the instant I am shooting it is your fault not mine.

Oh please, where do you get that from. I admit I live both out of the woods and in the woods, so maybe I'm unaware of what happens at the "edge" , but really, without something to back it up your post is a joke.

[SuziQ]

That is, unless you are of sufficient "rank" to not have to worry about such trivialities.

It doesn't seem, from the story, that the Vice-President is trying to shirk responsibility for the shooting.

[ancient_geezer]

This maybe an American History First......

Hmmm, not if you count the duel with pistols between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. That was the good ol' days when politics was really a rough game to play.

[Palladin]

Maybe wth the blizzard and 26 inches of snow in NYC, Katie Commie won't make it in to work tomorrow.

One can only hope.

[kenth]

If you run into my firing line at the instant I am shooting it is your fault not mine.

No, you make darn sure of not just your target, but the surroundings. That includes what is behind your target, the possibilities of people or other unintended targets moving into your line of fire, etc. If you're not completely sure, you don't fire. People who've been shot on the edge of woods are shot by careless hunters who don't take the time to know the lay of the land, their position and any possible people who might be in the area.

[cabojoe]

I think some people assume that the VP accidently aimed a shotgun at some one and fired. I've shot way more than my share of game birds, and one thing I learned is that besides the natural spread of the shot, you also have shot that goes flat when it hits the side of the barrel. This shot travels outside of the spread of the rest of the shot, and is probably what hit the VP's pal.

That being said, I did lose a Chesapeake Bay Retriever back in the 70's when some dude thought he was a duck. RIP Rebel.