I always knew Cheney was quick to temper after that, "Go fuck yourself,"...

The BBQ Pit
381

I almost sympathized with him on a human level:

“The image of him falling is something I’ll never ever be able to get out of my mind,” Cheney said. “I fired, and there’s Harry falling. It was, I’d have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment.”

Then (as always), rrrRRRRRREEE. The screech of mental brakes:

Cheney has been roundly criticized for failing to tell the public about the accident until the next day. . . “I thought that was the right call,” Cheney said. “I still do.”

You old rascal. For a second there, I thought you were going to relinquish the title of biggest fcking dck on the planet!

382

Cheney does so live up to his name.
Frankly, I don’t buy his mea culpa --because of the delay in his giving it. This should have happened the day of the accident–and Dick should have been at the hospital (or in an undisclosed location) awaiting word on the condition of his friend. I don’t care what kind of power he has–he had and has a personal responsibility to see this thru. Not let some private citizen chicky alert the media, not to keep silence on the matter for how many days, not to then come across with the statement that the permit fee will be paid etc.

His agenda(work, personal, party, whatever) should have stopped the second the injury occurred. IMO, what we shall see tonoc is a highly scripted, tightly controlled mea culpa. Cheney missed a great opportunity to show that he does indeed have the character he so lauds as conservative assets and so often decries as lacking in liberals, and in doing so, shows himself as lacking those same qualities. This is the reason is he being skewered, and rightly so by the press and most thinking people.

I’m starting to wonder if Dick’s heart has not been replaced with a mechanical one.
The entire handling of it is so cold as to be inhumane–to Whittington, his family and the rest of us. Only someone who thinks himself above and beyond reproach and un-reachable reacts the way Dick did. How does one dismiss a critical injury that has occured through one’s actions? The only “right” thing to do is to be accountable and to try to make amends. It shouldn’t take the amount of time that it did for any statement to be made. Dick should have been in front of the press, feeding them as much info as he could. He didn’t choose to do so–and to me that speaks volumes re his character (or lack thereof).

As for the jokes etc–injuring an elderly man is not funny per se, but IMO people are not holding up Mr Whittington(or his condition) as a joke–rather they are jeering at Cheney’s attitude and the irony surrounding this whole mess. If Dick had been less of one, the public might have more sympathy for him. I reserve my sympathy for Mr Whittington and his family. I still think that the sending up of Cheney is funny. I have never found Mr Whittington’s injuries to be humorous. I am amazed that some here cannot see the difference.

But then, all that is left for the apologists for this administration is righteous idignation. And to try to distract attention from the VP’s attitude by condemning other’s mockery of that attitude is disingenuous at best and rather cheap at worst. IOW, he is nailed. Sorry it bothers you to have to witness it. Cope.

The whole riff on Adlai’s childhood tragedy is bizarre. How are the 2 incidents alike? They’re not. And if that accident did indeed make Adlai a more compassionate and caring person, then Ruth did not die in vain. I wonder if Dick’s empathy for his fellow man is gonna increase from this. Time will tell.

383

That bias could go in the other direction - when we lefties are thinking about Cheney’s responsibility, we could talk about how it must be pretty serious - the shot must’ve gotten in pretty deep, etc.

But when the Daily Show makes jokes, it was just like he was hit with rock salt at fifty yards - probably didn’t even break the skin.

But, wearing these glasses that make everything on the left look bigger, I haven’t seen that bias.

384

Well, it certainly couldn’t decrease any.

385

Well, Adlai got fifty-three years of being more compassionate. Dick’s gonna get, what ten, fifteen, tops? I don’t really think he’s going to consider it worth the investment.

386

DICK actually just stated that he felt the White House press corps got so bent out of shape because they were “jealous” of the Corpus Christi paper’s, um, scoop (?)

And I guess in the words of Forrest Gump, that’s all he has to say about that.

The single most ballless interview I’ve ever seen.

387

Okay, I take it back; Hume actually got on him (with velvet gloves, admittedly) about reporting on it in a timely fashion.
Cheney claims he was worried about *accuracy * since Whittington’s condition was constantly changing. ACCURACY. Because that was the guiding concern behind those WMD reports, eh, DICK?

388

It just doesn’t end, does it? Is there an DSM-IV category for such complete denial of um, reality? Is he confabulating? Unbelievable.

This is unreal:

I read this as swipe to the “elitist media”-an in your face to our national news outlets and a cry for the “lil, rural guy”. Yo-DICK-it ain’t about exclusives–it’s about informing the damned public in a timely fashion. What a tool.

I wonder if he’s dizzy or even suffering permanent labrynthitis from all this spin.
Blech.

389

This incident and all the hoopla surrounding it is not about the liberal press, The Party, or the conservative conspiracy of silence, or Adali Stevenson, or any other diversionary nonsense. It is about a dumb shit who shot his hunting buddy. End of story. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. He feels bad about it? Good. He should. I don’t know how many gun clubs, organizations, hunter safety classes all teach the same basic things. Plus, this was not Cheney’s first hunt. He should have known better. He did know better. End of story. If he can’t do it safely, he should just stop.

390

Getting back to the question of Secret Service agents testifying, a quick Google reminded me of something I’d forgotten:

391

They are doing nothing beyond denial to quell the rumours of alcohol use during the hunt:

I have no doubt that a complete blood chemistry was done when Whittington was admitted, and if it was clean, there is no reason not to release it to put an end to the rumors. Cheney had better hope he pulls through, because if he doesn’t, his chances of controlling a coroner’s inquest are much less than his pull with the local police.

392

I laughed out loud when I saw the quote from Dick that he’d had “a beer” at lunch. In all my years of working w/offenders, getting urinalysis test results, etc, every single one would say “I had a beer or two”.

Even when BAL =0.3%. Even when I could smell the peppermint Schnapps (they always seemed to believe that it would smell the same as peppermint gum).

we’ll never know.

however, the issues that UncleBeer (and the victim’s friends) raise about “who was in charge of the hunt”, it sounds to me like there was no one. and now they see why that sort of thing was necessary.

393

I just had a few WTF moments in quick order visiting The Huffington Post.com. Some of the stuff seems like very odd rumor mongering about Cheney and the women he was hunting with, which doesn’t seem worth discussing. However, one item there stated that it is known that at least one pellet lodged in the man’s liver. I hadn’t heard that, but searching led to this:

So, not only was there birdshot near/in the heart, they were worried about throat injuries and shot near/in the liver? Jesus Christ. What happened to this slight “spray” or “peppering” he was supposed to have been so lightly troubled by?

And then, apparently from the interview with Brit Hume:

(bolding mine)

What a thoughtful buddy! As Al Franken said on his show today, in regards to Cheney dining at the ranch while Whittington was in the ICU (paraphrasing) "It was said that Cheney’s demeanor during dinner could be best described as ‘very worried.’ If I had just shot my friend in the face, you could best describe my demeanor as ‘at the hospital getting whatever food I might even be hungry for from a vending machine.’ "

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Bingo–DICK should be either in the waiting room abiding by his friend or if that is too much of a security for the hospital --he should be standing by–NOT at dinner with friends etc. Jeebus–this guy is a real piece of work.
as to the alcohol thing–we will never know. But ETOH levels are not routinely drawn in ER. I dont’ know if they are in hunting accidents–I live near Chicago–the only hunting we see is human to human. Oh, wait…
But also, IF an ETOH (alcohol) level WAS drawn on Whittington, 2 things: 1. that does not speak to DICK’s imbibing, if any and 2. that won’t be released–that’s under HIPPA. And thank goodness–the true victim(in every sense of the word) in all of this is Mr Whittington and his family–the press barrage must be horrific.

I don’t get how the bullet lodged in his heart if it’s the RIGHT side of his chest that was “peppered”. Heart is on the left, ladies and gentlemen. And at 78-he may well have had atrial fibrillation already-that is not fully established either.

395

Here’s the transcript of the Hume interview with Cheney on Fox

Here’s Cheney’s description of what happened after the accident:
Quote:
Hume: So did you run over to him or —

Cheney: Ran over to him and —

Hume: And what did you see? He’s lying there —

Cheney: He was laying there on his back, obviously bleeding. You could see where the shot had struck him. And one of the fortunate things was that I’ve always got a medical team, in effect, covering me wherever I go. I had a physician’s assistant with me that day. Within a minute or two he was on the scene administering first-aid. And –

Hume: And Mr. Whittington was conscious, unconscious, what?

Cheney: He was conscious —

Hume: What did you say?

Cheney: Well, I said, “Harry, I had no idea you were there.” And —

Hume: What did he say?

Cheney: He didn’t respond. He was — he was breathing, conscious at that point, but he didn’t — he was, I’m sure, stunned, obviously, still trying to figure out what had happened to him. The doc was fantastic - endQuote

One little thing bothers me, though. According to this Fox news reportdays earlier, eyewitness Katharine Armstrong paints a more caring portrait of Cheney after the accident:

“Armstrong said Cheney was very apologetic after the shot, held Whittington’s face and cleaned up the blood.”

Cheney doesn’t bring this up at all in the Fox interview. Why wouldn’t he? Even if he was leary to bring up personal issues, why wouldn’t he say, “I held Harry’s head, and told him how sorry I was” That would go a long way toward sympathy in this public announcement.

Cheney’s defense of how the press handling of this event by Armstrong hinges on her reliability as an eyewitness.

Was she embellishing here? Something doesn’t click right for me.

396

But it does speak to Dick’s veracity, as he has stated that no one was drinking at the time.

It could be released voluntarily, with the permission of Whittington, which would be a smart thing to do to quell the rumors.

397

Somewhere along the way I heard that the pellet in or near the heart had moved there - it wasn’t shot right to his heart. I guess that would be through a blood stream, but all the information’s been so skeletal, and the story changes anyway, so we may here something contradicting that later.

398

The story does change, or at least evolves in a very staccato and non-linear fashion. However, there is this, purportedly from one of the doctors:

I think at the very least it is clear that the story was minimized from the get-go, which can only give the impression that some people want to hide at least some aspects of what happened.

399

Maybe the pellet has got magic and can navigate on its own, like that bullet that Kennedy got shot with that did three turns in four different directions before lodging somewhere or other.

Also, I think Cheney may have shot at a second quail behind the grassy knoll.

400

I heard a doctor on Hardball on February 15 say that these pellets would not move through the blood stream into the heart. If the birdshot is on or in his heart, then it got there by going through his vest, jacket, shirt and skin. (The transcript is not available yet.) She was also of the opinion that this was not a “heart attack” in the way that most of us think of heart attacks – a sudden reaction within the heart brought about by the frailness of the patient.*

*I have absolutely no idea about the accuracy or source of her information. She may be pulling a Frist for all I know.