White House under fire over Cheney shooting

Lawyer won’t comment
Yvonne Wheeler, spokeswoman at Christus Spohn Hospital, listed Whittington's condition as “very stable” but said she did not know when he would be discharged.

Whittington sent word through a hospital official that he would have no comment on the incident out of respect for Cheney.

Armstrong told The Associated Press that the accident occurred after Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of a car to shoot at a covey of quail.

She said Whittington went to retrieve a bird he shot. Cheney and the third hunter, whom she would not identify, walked to another spot and discovered a second covey of quail.

Whittington “came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn’t signal them or indicate to them or announce himself,” said Armstrong, who was in the car.

“The vice president didn’t see him,” she said. “The covey flushed, and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.”

Armstrong said the shotgun pellets broke the skin. “It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn’t get in his eyes or anything like that,” she said.

Each hunter was wearing a bright orange vest at the time, Armstrong said.

‘Looks like chickenpox’
Sally Whittington told The Dallas Morning News her father was being observed because of swelling from some of the welts on his neck. His face “looks like chickenpox, kind of,” she said.

Emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington before he was taken first to a hospital in Kingsville and then transferred to Corpus Christi.

Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He’s been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.

Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year and is “a very safe sportsman.” She said Whittington is also a regular, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.

The 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch has been in the influential South Texas family since the turn of the last century. Katharine is the daughter of Tobin Armstrong, a politically connected rancher who has been a guest at the White House and spent 48 years as director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He died in October; Cheney attended his funeral.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Steve Lightfoot said Cheney was legally hunting with a license he purchased in November.

Birds and stamps
But Monday afternoon, the White House released a statement acknowledging that, although he had properly obtained a $125 Texas nonresident season hunting license, he lacked a $7 stamp for hunting upland game birds.

“The staff asked for all permits needed, but was not informed of the 7 dollar upland game bird stamp requirement,” the statement read.

Cheney has since sent a $7 check to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, to cover the cost of an upland game bird stamp.

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