Cheney "You Can't Blame Anybody Else"

[Stringer]

I didn't want this to get buried in the other post, so I thought I'd put this up on it's own.

FWIW, He stood up and did the right thing on this.  

NEDRA PICKLER and LYNN REZOSKYAssociatedPress

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney took full blame Wednesday for shooting a hunting companion, calling it "one of the worst days of my life," but he was defiantly unapologetic about not publicly disclosing the accident until the next day.  "You can't blame anybody else," Cheney told Fox News Channel in his first public comments since the accident on a private Texas ranch Saturday. "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

 Cheney said he had had a beer at lunch that day but nobody was drinking when they went back out to hunt a couple hours later. Law enforcement officials have ruled out alcohol as a factor.  The vice president has been under intense political pressure to speak out about the accident, which has become a public relations embarrassment and potential political liability for the White House. Senior advisers to President Bush worried that Cheney's silence had suggested a possible cover-up, and Cheney acknowledged that he delayed an announcement over the advice of Bush's press advisers.

 "We really didn't know until Sunday morning that Harry was probably going to be OK, that it looked like there hadn't been any serious damage to any vital organ," he said. "And that's when we began the process of notifying the press."  

Cheney was soft-spoken and appeared shaken as he described seeing 78-year-old Harry Whittington drop to the ground after he pulled the trigger on his 28-gauge shotgun while aiming at a covey of quail.  

The image of him falling is something I'll never ever be able to get out of my mind," Cheney told Fox's Brit Hume. "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."

  Cheney defended his decision not to publicly disclose what happened until the next day, when he agreed to the suggestion of ranch owner Katharine Armstrong to have her announce it to a local newspaper. "I thought that was the right call. I still do," the vice president said.

  Armstrong has suggested that Whittington was at fault in the shooting because, she said, he failed to announce himself as he returned to the hunting line after breaking off to retrieve a downed bird.

But Cheney, who has been hunting for at least 12 years, said in no uncertain terms that Whittington was not at fault.  "You can talk about all of the other conditions that exist at the time, but that's the bottom line and - it was not Harry's fault," he said.  

Texas officials said the shooting was an accident, and no charges have been brought.  Cheney said the accident happened after Whittington stepped out of the hunting party to retrieve a downed bird in deep cover. Cheney said he and a third hunter walked about 100 yards away to where another covey had been spotted. He said immediately after he shot at a bird flying to his right, he saw Whittington in his line of fire.  

Cheney said he had agreed that Armstrong should be the one to make the story public because she was an eyewitness, because she grew up on the ranch and because she is "an acknowledged expert in all of this" as a past head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He also agreed with her decision to choose the Corpus Christi Caller-Times as the way to get the news out.  "I thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting and then it would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the Web site, which is the way it went out and I thought that was the right call," Cheney said.  Cheney said he was concerned that if the story broke Saturday night when information was still coming in, some reports may have been inaccurate since it was a complicated story that most journalists had never dealt with before.

[storch]

there you go, but he should have done that on sunday.  he is becoming a liability to the boss and the GOP this is an election year.  FWIW cheney has never handled the press well which is odd because the man has a quick wit and a wry sense of humor.

[SOB]

Bravo Cheney.  It's takes a lot for a man to stand up and admit when he ****ed up.  It takes even more for a politician to do it.

[Eagler]

huh?
it was a hunting accident ... zero to do with his job as vp

the left is stirring this up as they have nothing else to make noise about .. and they are looking as their usual retarded selves in doing so ..

[SOB]

Yeah, the lefties making a big deal out of this is almost as stupid as saying Cheney wasn't at fault in this incident, eh Eagler?

[storch]

ya eagler i agree.  never the less on a scale of 1-10 10 being the best way to deal with accident i rate the veep's performance at a .00000056

i would have said yup i shot him it was an accident of course.  here's my list of prominent D.C. attorneys invited to attend my up coming hunts. but that's just me.

[Hangtime]

Cheney came of as a human being.. was good to see the guy speaking truth for a change.

As a side note, there's this nagging doubt about the current situation in the republican camp. I've been waiting for news of an upsurge in missing children..


... chief indicators of a collapse in a political party being shooting their lawyers and eating their young.

[outbreak]

yea, Glad cheyney was so truthful about doing it, Besides hope his friend makes it out alive, Heard he had some complications, Guess some of the pellets MOVED into his heart and they had to rush him into surgery.

[Stringer]

Originally posted by Eagler
huh?
it was a hunting accident ... zero to do with his job as vp

the left is stirring this up as they have nothing else to make noise about .. and they are looking as their usual retarded selves in doing so ..

There was no shortage of retarded stuff, I guess....

don't think it's Cheney's fault at all...what was he suppose to do, take roll before he took his shot?  the lawyer knows he was in the wrong. I am sure he will not make the same mistake twice

Just so you understand, alot of hunters were making noise about what was being said about "protocal" by Scott McClellan.  That's what got my attention.  Not your usual stupid leftie label crap.

I first saw the report on GMA, and I thought, too bad and unlucky for both parties until I then next heard that whole protocal thing, then I thought, dumb bastards....why try to spin something as simple as a hunting accident.

[Debonair]

"My bad.  
We're still cool, right?
Great, see you in six months or somethin"

[dmf]

Well its not like  he could deny it, I mean there were only 2 of them out there right?

[Hangtime]

when cheney decided to finally confront the qail personally the worst case intel assesment indicated that the quail were armed, prepared to defend themselves and that their lobby had likely placed whittingdon on retainer, who was promptly shot when he attempted to negotiate on their behalf.

[Eagler]

the lawyer WAS out of place

if he was were he was suppose to be, he would not have been hit

but life is good if this is front page material for the news and talk shows. nothing really bad must be happening in the world like a crazy iranian building nukes or something .. lol

[Shuckins]

Don't ya just love some of the "What did the President know and when did he know it" questions being asked by the press?

But they DON'T have an agenda do they.  Naaaaahhhhh...

[Stringer]

Originally posted by Eagler
the lawyer WAS out of place

if he was were he was suppose to be, he would not have been hit

but life is good if this is front page material for the news and talk shows. nothing really bad must be happening in the world like a crazy iranian building nukes or something .. lol

Eagler,
I'll type it slowly for you.....

He was out of place because Cheney, et.al., DID NOT STOP AND WAIT FOR HIM TO RETRIEVE HIS BIRD.

THEY  PUT HIM OUT OF PLACE BY MOVING FORWARD WHEN THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE!

You don't hunt much do you?

Yeah it's not like some crazy iranians are building nukes or something, so we've got the time to go hunting or something.