Cheney: Case Closed?

Cheney Shooting Case Is Closed in Texas
Report on Accident Backs Explanations by Vice President and Ranch Owner

By John Pomfret
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 17, 2006; Page A05

CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex., Feb. 16 -- The sheriff's department responsible for investigating Vice President Cheney's shooting of a Texas lawyer has closed its investigation and decided no criminal charges are warranted, according to a report released Thursday.

The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department report largely corroborates the accounts of the shooting given by Cheney and Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the 50,000-acre ranch where the incident occurred. Cheney shot Harry Whittington, 78, a prominent Austin lawyer, while hunting quail last Saturday afternoon.

The report, written by Chief Deputy Gilbert San Miguel Jr., quotes Cheney and Whittington as saying the shooting was an accident. They said no one was drinking alcohol during the hunt, according to the report. Interviewed in his hospital room in Corpus Christi, Whittington expressed concern only that the incident would hurt hunting's image in Texas, the report said.

"Mr. Whittington did speak of the incident and explained foremost that there was no alcohol during the hunt and everyone was wearing the proper hunting attire of blaze orange," the report said. "Mr. Whittington again reiterated that this incident was just an accident."

Hospital officials have declined to say whether Whittington was given a blood alcohol test when he was admitted.

In his first public comments on the shooting, President Bush said Thursday in Washington that he is satisfied with Cheney's account of what happened. "I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine," he said. "I'm satisfied with the explanation he gave."

Whittington developed an abnormal heart rhythm Tuesday when a birdshot pellet moved in his chest. His condition improved Thursday at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, hospital officials said. David Blanchard, the hospital's director of emergency services, said he is confident Whittington will continue to recover. "We feel very confident to reasonable medical certainty that there is no other pellet or birdshot that poses a threat to Mr. Whittington," he told reporters.

Cheney discussed the incident publicly for the first time Wednesday in an interview with Fox News, and he took blame for the shooting. Previous statements by Armstrong, who witnessed the shooting, indicated that Whittington may have been to blame.

"You can't blame anybody else," Cheney said. "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

The vice president did not release any word of the shooting at the time, deferring to Armstrong, who called reporters in Texas on Sunday morning. Cheney defended his decision, saying his first concern was for Whittington's health.

The sheriff's 2 1/2 -page report says that San Miguel began his investigation at the Armstrong Ranch at 8 a.m. Sunday, 14 1/2 hours after the shooting occurred. Cheney told San Miguel that a hunting party of seven, riding in three vehicles, was looking for quail in a pasture when dogs located a covey. Whittington, interviewed in his hospital room, told San Miguel that he hit two birds in that covey. Then a hunting guide, Bo Hubert, discovered a second covey. Cheney, who had not shot any birds in the first covey, walked 100 yards with Pamela Pitzer Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to try his luck with the second. He carried a 28-gauge Italian-made shotgun.

I guess everything is on the up-and-up on this, but I still have to wonder. Anytime I hear the word "alcohol" and there is a significant delay prior to the investigation, I am concerned. It would not be the first time a cover-up has occurred in a situation like this...eh Teddy? I would hate to cast any aspersions on Deputy San Miguel, Jr., but this is Texas and, as in other states (like Arkansas, for example), lawmakers have been known to "accomodate" the needs of politicians...right Bill? I happen to like Dick Cheney, but I don't quite trust him to be as forthright as I would had this happened to President Bush, even though the same hateful rumors would be circulating about him. Cheney created this whole circus by not being as forthcoming as, perhaps, he should have been, but it doesn't excuse the hateful things those on the Left are saying, nor does it excuse the boorish behavior and childish temper tantrums of those members of the White House press corps.

Full Story: Some Questions Remain

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