This just in from the Associated Press:
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a “minor heart attack,” a hospital official said Tuesday.
Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.
He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.
Ol’ Harry got peppered pretty good, didn’t he?
Your move, Rush.
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Anonymous
I don’t believe you are still writing about this.Yes, it was a chuckle.But thats about it! Jeesh!
Mike Stucka
Fark.com had an appropriate headline:Cheney getting more flack for disregarding basic hunting rules than invading IraqA prompt response:”that and no one got hurt in the whole iraq thing”
Anonymous
Unbelievable. The vice president of the United States SHOOTS a man and refuses to meet with law enforcement ’til the next day (long enough for any booze to be out of his system).The White House makes no public statement, leaving it to the owner of the ranch to give the story to the local papers.Then, the White House tries to laugh it off, and blames the victim.Then, it turns out the victim has bird shot LODGED IN HIS HEART. And has suffered a HEART ATTACK. The White House knows about this as of this morning, but the White House press secretary doesn’t mention it at his noon briefing.And the commentor above calls all of this a “chuckle.” Tell me, Chuckle Head, how do they marshall you guys so quickly to run interference on the blogs when this stuff happens?
mike_b1
This is fascinating. If Whittington dies, could the VP be charged with manslaughter?
Anonymous
I don’t know how Texas could avoid manslaughter,but hopefully it doesn’t come to that. Having read a lot about the Greg Lemond shotgun accident years ago,I never bought into the everything’s ok prognosis for the 78y.o.Texan. While Lemond was much more seriously hurt, he too had many pellets left in his body and he was never the same as an athlete. Another interesting question for Scotty would be had Bush been the shooter(rather than the VP) would you have handled this similarly.
Anonymous
Yes, let’s hope it doesn’t come to anything worse.But to answer the question:§ 19.04. MANSLAUGHTER[0]. (a) A person commits an offense if he recklessly causes the death of an individual. (b) An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree.
Anonymous
Hey, 3:21. It’s obviously a vast right wing conspiracy, right? A shame your Globe reading today didn’t include McGrory.(Sorry. MC GRORY!)
tony schinella
Unbelievable. The vice president of the United States SHOOTS a man and refuses to meet with law enforcement ’til the next day (long enough for any booze to be out of his system). The White House makes no public statement, leaving it to the owner of the ranch to give the story to the local papers. Then, the White House tries to laugh it off, and blames the victim.Jeez, who does Cheney think he is … Ted Kennedy?
Anonymous
I love how conservatives keep throwing the name “Ted Kennedy” out there, as if two wrongs make a right.
mike_b1
Dick Cheney still hasn’t appeared in public to discuss his accidental shooting of a 78-year-old man, but there are plenty of people willing to speak on the veep’s behalf — among them, Comedy Central’s Rob Corddry. Playing the role of a “vice president firearms mishap analyst,” Corddry explained it all Monday night for “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart:Stewart: Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?Corddry: Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington’s face.Stewart: But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?Corddry: Jon, in a post-9/11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.Stewart: That’s horrible.Corddry: Look, the mere fact that we’re even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know “how” we’re hunting them. I’m sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little “covey” of theirs.Stewart: I’m not sure birds can laugh, Rob.Corddry: Well, whatever it is they do — coo — they’re cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.
Anonymous
Sure hope you didn’t find “War & Peace” compelling, Mike…
mike_b1
Hated the book but loved the comic strip!
Anonymous
For those who took a little too much humor out of the Dick Cheney shooting, here’s some real humor derived from the first round of humor:Lafayette resident Josh Kayser chuckled Monday afternoon when he read about Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a friend during a quail hunt over the weekend.A few hours later, paramedics rushed Kayser, 21, to the hospital after his girlfriend accidentally shot him while they were trailing a raccoon.“I read that thing about the vice president and said to myself ‘How can you shoot your friend with your gun?’ And look what happened,” he said Tuesday.
Anonymous
Where were all these folksy anecdotes about how everyone eventually gets shot while hunting before Cheney’s incident? I guess no one wanted to give gun control and safety advocates more “ammunition.”Suddenly, merely to step into the woods is to get permanently maimed with bird shot, and we all learn to laugh and live with it? I don’t buy it. I grew up in hunting country, around hunters, and hunted myself as a young adult. We talked a great deal about the dangers, and always stressed the need for absolute adherence to the rules. I never personally knew anyone who shot at someone, or who got shot or shot at by someone else. Yes, hunting accidents DO happen. But they shouldn’t, and it’s not cute when they do. It usually involves alcohol, and someone usually winds up dead or missing a body part. And they don’t happen nearly as much as all these yokels making excuses for Vice President DICK want us to believe.You right-wingers are mistaken if you think there aren’t plenty of us liberals out here who have spent considerable time in the woods.
mike_b1
I’ll answer my own question…this from the AP a few hour ago:DALLAS – If the man wounded by Dick Cheney dies, the vice president could — in theory at least — face criminal charges, even though the shooting was an accident. Dallas defense attorney David Finn, who has been a state and a federal prosecutor, said Wednesday that a Texas grand jury could bring a charge of criminally negligent homicide if there is evidence the vice president knew or should have known “there was a substantial or unjustifiable risk that his actions would result in him shooting a fellow hunter.”