Wire services are reporting that Harry Whittington, who was shot by Vice President Cheney on a hunting trip, has suffered a heart attack, apparently because some of the birdshot that remains in his body migrated close to his heart. He is back in intensive care, though the heart attack does not appear to be life-threatening.
Earlier reports indicated that the White House had decided to try to defuse the situation by joking about it, making wry quips at every available opportunity about people wearing orange being worried that Cheney might enter the room. Guess they’ll have to rethink that strategy.
Please share widely!
Did the birdshot get in his bloodstream? I have no medical background what so ever, so I had trouble understanding what the heck this means…
his doctor announced that there was always a risk that the birdshot would move around, presumably because it could get swept up in the flow of blood (though he wasn’t precise about that). And it sounds as though some of the birdshot actually lodged in Whittington’s heart, which is what caused the heart attack.
If God forbid he should die, could DC be charged with manslaughter?
If causation is linked to the bird shot then yes, DC could be finding himself in a bit of trouble. This is not to say that he doesn’t have defenses, TX is a weird state and given some of laws I have read about in the papers concerning hunting I can see DC easily skating past this.
Since neither of the men had the correct licenses – technically they were poachers.
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Cheney is now stating that he was not shooting at the bird but just shooting a poacher – all for National Security – you weak Dems!
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Obviously kidding.
is the law in Texas that one could be charged with for this type of accident. From what I head it is an obscure law. For lWillmington’s sake I hope DC is not charged.
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On a lighter note, I heard that Letterman said he(the VP) was tying to rid the country of the bird flu.
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On a serious note there was a commentator on Hardball that said the VP did nothing wrong by not disclosing this incident sooner because it was a “private” accident, not in his official capacity. Any thoughts?
“a commentator on Hardball that said the VP did nothing wrong by not disclosing this incident sooner because it was a “private” accident, not in his official capacity.”
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The first time a Republican tries that one on me, here’s the answer I’ll give:
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“So, does that mean that if a Democratic Senator had a car wreck driving home from a private party and a passenger in his car died in the accident, the public would have no need to know about that because it was also a private accident?”
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We’ll see how much they like that spin then…
[i]”On a serious note there was a commentator on Hardball that said the VP did nothing wrong by not disclosing this incident sooner because it was a ‘private’ accident, not in his official capacity. Any thoughts?”[/i]
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If you mean report it to the news media, WH press corp, etc., I could really care less. The story would get out regardless and the stalling tactic simply makes the situation look potentially worse than it could be.
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If you mean report to the authorities, that is a whole different can of worms. As I understand things, Cheney did not speak to the police for almost 24 hrs after the incident. Furthermore, when they tried to get a statement from him shortly after the incident, the offical(s) was turned away by the secret service. This I have a MAJOR problem with since an investigation into the potential involvement of drugs/alcohol is thwarted and thusly a crime may very well have been covered up. As Conga said, see: Kennedy, Ted.
According to a former prosecutor in TX, you only have to report a hunting accident if a person is killed. If there was alcohol with guns would that make this under federal jurisditcion and not state? That to me would be a good reason albeit not the only reason not to speak to the police immediately, legality aside.
can be found on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. They too acknowledge that the incident has been downgraded from “incredibly hilarious” to “still funny, but hmm, now a little sad”. I’m including their scale of funniness of stories đŸ™‚
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