Comments on: Accidents Happen

By: John

John — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 03:59:34 +0000

It appears that the ranch manager actually videotaped the shooting! Check it out here:

http://collegeguru.blogspot.com/2006/02/dick-cheney-and-harry-whittington-star.html

By: Functional

Functional — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 22:29:20 +0000

TheoryJones: I don’t know much about the rules of hunting. But I do know the rules of basic human decency. And one of them is that if you accidentally hurt someone, part of taking responsibility for it is going to the hospital even if it means you have to cancel your goddam dinner plans!

You’re not the Vice-President of the United States. I’ll bet anything that Cheney would have gone to the hospital if he were a private citizen, but he’s the Vice-President. Everywhere he goes there’s a contingent of Secret Service guards, assistants, etc., and Cheney’s sudden arrival at a hospital would be more disruptive than could imaginably be worth it. Cheney did the guy a favor by staying away and letting the doctors in the ER get to work without disruption.

By: MQ

MQ — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:09:43 +0000

It seems to me that the odds are very high that Cheney was drunk at the time. He admitted to one beer (as someone above said, this is the classic drunk response when asked), he delayed any contact with law enforcement long enough for alcohol to clear his body, drinking is common in hunting parties.

By: peter

peter — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:19:03 +0000

no preference-
As I said earlier, no informed judgment can be made until you know more about the gun and the ammo.
I’m not sure what your problem is with my example. The mossberg 590 that I was using in my example is a security/defense shotgun designed for reliability in close quarters fighting. It is not well known for accuracy at distance. In fact, its barrel length (for example) qualifies as just legal, and no more. Most hunting shotguns would do better. Depending on barrel length, choke, ammo, etc., maybe much, much better.
In other words, while one cannot know (without knowing a lot more about Cheney’s gun and the ammo) whether the report is accurate, it is not implausible. I probably don’t qualify as a source of unbiased informed opinion in your mind, but I have been shooting all my life and I can say with that experience behind me that the reports are not implausible.
As for your skpeticism about cb, while I agree that the rate isn’t that high, the true rate is no doubt higher than what you cite. Particulalry with birdshot, I suspect it is only serious hits that are reported. I have personally taken 3-5 pellets out of someone’s hand with a tweezers (an experience that does not speak well to the idea of getting hit with a shotgun) and it was never reported. Too minor.

By: No Preference

No Preference — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:11:18 +0000

Wow, Belle, your mom looks great.

By: No Preference

No Preference — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:10:18 +0000

With all due respect to Peter and cb, Dick Cheney is not just some guy. The fact that our Vice President shot should raise very serious questions about his judgement. It is also news, big news, and the way it was handled was just bizarre.

cb, you may have “hunted a million times in South Texas}, but this isn’t the sort of thing that happens all the time. The hunting accident rate in Texas in 2004 2.7 per 100,000 hunters. It’s very unusual for a hunter to shoot someone else.

peter, I don’t know much about math, physics, or guns, but it seems to me that the dispersal pattern of Cheney’s shotgun pellets at (allegedly) 30 yards ought to be much greater than your own experience at 20 yards. It would be interesting to hear some unbiased informed opinion about the likelihood, or even the possibility, of half the pellets hitting Whittington at that distance.

The American public has a full right to know the exact truth of what happened.

By: AlanDownunder

AlanDownunder — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 04:56:59 +0000

Drink is the best explanation for -- 1 Sheriff's deputy turned away from the Armstrong ranch on the evening of the shooting by the SS in order to avert a breathalizer test. 2 Unstraight story by Armstrong of drinking which Cheney therefore cannot and does not deny outright. Alan Dershowitz puts it well.

By: J Thomas

J Thomas — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 01:31:34 +0000

And I agree it would be a damn pity if Cheney went down for this – in a just world his legal problems would be with that court in the Hague.

Why not hope for both? It isn’t like one cancels out the other.

And while you’re at it, you can hope for a pony.

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:04:15 +0000

“This seems like something they could have defused with an early statement and apology. Something is going on.”
Yes, something is, but it’s simple – Cheney is simply looking to his legal position. His lawyer will have given the usual “say nothing, and especially don’t admit liability” advice. Anything more at this stage is pure speculation.

And I agree it would be a damn pity if Cheney went down for this – in a just world his legal problems would be with that court in the Hague.

By: maidhc

maidhc — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 23:37:43 +0000

From today’s Smirking Chimp:

Sirius radio’s Alex Bennett just broke a rumor that the delay in reporting the news that Cheney shot an old man in the heart was due to an effort to hide or spin Cheney’s female companion.

Pamela Willeford, ambassador to Switzerland and—yes—Liechtenstein, was part of the hunting excursion with Cheney and Whittington. And according to Willeford’s account, Cheney and the ambassador were side-by-side when the shooting of Whittington took place.

The vice president’s Secret Service detail had to decide what to do with Willeford by way of perhaps covering up her relationship with Cheney, and thus the delay in reporting the news.

The rumor goes that Lynn Cheney isn’t happy with Cheney’s close relationship with Willeford.

By: roger

roger — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 22:51:36 +0000

Well, anybody who has seen The Pink Panther knows exactly what happened. Whittington happens to be Cheney’s faithful Kato. Thus, whenever Cheney retires to his bunker and goes to the fridge for a beer, there is always a chance that Whittington, dressed in his trademark black, will launch a devestating attack. Luckily, Cheney’s prowess at the martial arts is legendary, acquired in the super secret Rambo like guerrilla force that he and the president secretly joined in the 60s, when their country called and they were off to Hanoi, getting many important secrets. Actually, that is where Cheney met Whittington.

So, of course, Whittington saw his old maitre distracted for a moment, and instinct took over. Dropping his quail, he ran on tiptoe and was about to leap when Cheney’s gun went off. All a bad show, really. And it depressed Cheney greatly, reminding him of that incident that, between him and the President, they call “chinatown”—he was trying to save somebody in Haiphong, 1967, and somebody got hurt. Ask anybody from who worked the Haiphong networks.

Hopefully, the President will give Dick the Medal of Freedom to cheer him up.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 22:41:47 +0000

Antti, I know that that is on some level not serious, but Molly Ivins says that the victim was notably decent, particularly for a Texas Republican.

By: theorajones

theorajones — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 22:21:28 +0000

i agree that something smells here—booze is my guess.

But I’m honestly more disgusted if he had nothing to hide. Because what kind of a jackass shoots his friend and doesn’t go with him to surgery?

Maybe I’m Miss Manners here, but it seems obvious to me that if you shoot your friend, you don’t have a nice quiet dinner at home. You go to the hospital and you wait in the waiting room while he’s in surgery, and then when he’s out, you go see him afterwards.

I don’t know much about the rules of hunting. But I do know the rules of basic human decency. And one of them is that if you accidentally hurt someone, part of taking responsibility for it is going to the hospital even if it means you have to cancel your goddam dinner plans!

By: swift

swift — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:59:55 +0000

I think we have a case of karmic reconciliation here. Whittington’s getting shot in the face was payback for the fact that he had Cheney within range and didn’t take him down.

If the secret service allows you to be within range of Cheney while holding a loaded weapon, chances are you’ve probably done enough wrong in this world to deserve getting shot in the face.

By: eudoxis

eudoxis — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:48:25 +0000

“I don’t think Cheney is a brazen murderer or something, but I have to say that recent coverage has made me much more inclined to think that either he was drunk, or he was standing a ot closer to the victim then we have heard.”

Our first thought as well, here, Belle. Just from experience, having spent some time around MRI machines and head injuries related to hunting, two surprising findings. One, an astounding number of people with shot in their bodies, that they didn’t know about. Two, how commonly hunters fall out of treestands when taking a pee. Of course, they always claim two beers, no more, if they can talk.