The Cheney Hunting Incident

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AP / White House

The Cheney Hunting File:

The traditional media and the blogosphere are abuzz with questions about the drinking Cheney did before hunting; whether his medications, combined with alcohol, may have played a role; and whether this explains why he didn’t alert the media for so long about the accident (i.e., did he need the time to get the intoxicants out of his system?).


Some of the best writing on the alcohol issue:

• Think Progress: McClellan Ducks Questions on Role of Alcohol
• AMERICAblog:  What did Cheney drink and when did he drink it?
• Tucker Carlson: You CanӒt Drink A Beer If You Shoot. Period.
• Think Progress: Inconsistencies in statements of Cheney’s “star witness”
• Raw Story: ‘Beer quote’ scrubbed from MSNBC story
• The Nation’s John Nichols: Cheney has a lot more explaining to do

Earlier articles and commentary

• Molly Ivins: Welcome back to the paradoxical Bush/Cheney “responsibility society,” where no one (starting with the administration) takes responsibility. column http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060213_accident_hunting_cheney/
• The president says, “I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine,” but declines to discuss details of Cheney’s late disclosure of the hunting accident.
• In a gesture admirable in its sentiment but inexcusable in its belatedness, the vice president tells Fox News that he alone is to blame for the accident. He called it “one of the worst days of my life.” (video or story) He does not, however, apologize for having a private citizen break the news to the world—almost 24 hours late.
• Republicans are chastizing the vice president for his slow and unapologetic disclosure of the hunting incident. As well they should. For an administration that orchestrated Bush’s aircraft carrier photo-op, this episode seems particularly bush league.
• Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident, has a birdshot pellet in his heart and had “a minor heart attack” Tuesday morning. He is back in intensive care. | story
• The ER chief at the Texas hospital, asked if the birdshot could endanger Whittington’s life, responded: “When birdshot is in your body, there’s always the risk they can move. We’ll watch very closely for any migration.”
• Account of Doctors raises questions on heart injury
• Think Progress: Scott McClellan concealed the heart attack from the press.
• A White House spokesman cracked jokes on the record about the incident (before Whittington suffered the heart attack).
• The Smoking Gun surfaces the Texas hunting accident report. (hat tip: Huffington Post)
• The lowdown on what hunting rules Cheney broke.
• Slow Leak: Time publishes an inside account of why Cheney didn’t publicly disclose news of the accident for 24 hours.
• Unloading on Cheney: Comedians take aim at the vice president.

Compiled by Blair Golson

Created on Feb. 16, 2006, last updated on Sep. 28, 2006

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By hinchliffes, July 13, 2011 at 10:59 pm Link to this comment

This is a case of social responsibility, as within all common sense. Alcohol coupled with medication would most probably bring more bad than good, to the self as well as the individual’s surroundings. Accident’s and mishaps will indefinitely occur and claims of this sort, would likely to be declined due to the alcoholic comsupmtion.
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By Susan Estelle, February 28, 2006 at 10:09 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Just another example of this corrupt facist administration not being held to the same law as the people! NOTHING CHANGES-SAME STUPID MEDIA SPIN
If you or I had shot someone and waited 24 hours before getting a sobriety test, you know we’d be in deep shit, Dick does it and just hides inside his protective shell that is bush. Dick does not immediately awknowledge that he has almost killed a man, glossing over the story, no apology, nada!
I am amazed that our idiot pres. is passing laws to give him even more power than previous vice presidents.The White House stinks with corruption.
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By Joe Smith, February 27, 2006 at 8:47 am Link to this comment
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A couple months after I got back from Nam, I was pheasant hunting on an Air Force base and a Colonel shot me.  He was kicked out of the club and lost all hunting privelages for a year. The Colonel did to me what the Cong couldn’t do in a year!
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By Matt Clarke, February 23, 2006 at 5:10 pm Link to this comment
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finally: where the evidence is; but we can’t get it
I thought you might be interested in the Capitol Hill Blue’s Blog - Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer#comments#comments. You can view it at, http://www.capitolhillblue.com/blog/2006/02/secret_service_agents_say_chen.html#comments
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By God is Truth, February 22, 2006 at 4:30 pm Link to this comment
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While it’s possible it was a so called “accident”  and i never did trust LBJ, he made a poignant comment, “there are no accidents in politics.”
What’s Mr. Whittington’s background role?  How would he have been considered a threat?
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By randall bell, February 22, 2006 at 3:16 pm Link to this comment
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Check out today’s Post on Capitol Hill Blue-Doug says the Secret Service report stated that Cheney was drunk when it happended
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By jsinclair, February 22, 2006 at 12:18 am Link to this comment
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I think Rove et al are afraid of the womanizing angle, (the two single women accompanying Cheney and his friend, while Lynne Cheney was no where to be found—and unusually quiet, as well, ever since).
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By PB Mani, February 21, 2006 at 9:31 am Link to this comment
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Of course the most obvious reason Cheney kept quuiet until 24 (14? 20?) hours later is that he was drunk (“one beer” indeed!) and needed the time for the alcohol to be metabolized from his blood stream.
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By Gregg Heacock, February 20, 2006 at 7:06 pm Link to this comment
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“I shot my friend, Harry!”  But, later, Cheney says he was just an acquaintance.  How we reframe the news to tug at the heart-strings!
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By eb magdalen, February 18, 2006 at 9:21 am Link to this comment
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i feel that there is a story within the story of the shooting.  who was cheney’s date for this hunting trip, Pam or Karen?  My money is on Pam, us ambassador to land of banks, a former texas school teacher, appointed by bush in july 2003. this was a double date, karen and harry, dick and pam. if someone were to dig deeper, they may find out more about this.  take a shovel!
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