Cheney takes responsibility for shooting

Unapologetic on disclosure
“I’m comfortable with the way we did it, obviously. You can disagree with that, and some of the White House press corps clearly do. But, no, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Scott McClellan and [Counselor to the President] Dan Bartlett,” he said.

“They’ve got a tough job to do and they do it well. They urged us to get the story out.  The decision about how it got out, basically, was my responsibility.”

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 Parks and Wildlife. 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.

“What do you think now?” Hume asked.

“I still do,” Cheney responded.

Whittington was reported doing well at a Texas hospital Wednesday after doctors said that a pellet entered his heart and that he had what they called caused “a mild heart attack.”

One pellet from Cheney’s shotgun — a pellet just under one-tenth of an inch in diameter — traveled to Whittington’s heart. Hospital officials said the Texan had a normal heart rhythm again Wednesday afternoon and was sitting up in a chair, eating regular food and planning to do some legal work in his room.

‘Doing extremely well’
Whittington was still in intensive care Wednesday, but only for personal privacy reasons, said Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.

“He’s doing extremely well right now,” Banko said. His doctors have said they are highly optimistic about his recovery.

Through hospital officials, Whittington has declined to comment.

“He still kind of wonders what all the hoopla is about,” Banko said. He said Whittington sees it as “much ado about nothing.”

Cheney was using No. 7½ shot from a 28-gauge shotgun. Shotgun pellets typically are made of steel or lead; the pellets in No. 7½ shot are just under one-tenth of an inch in diameter.

The pellet that traveled to Whittington’s heart was either touching or embedded in the heart muscle near the top chambers, called the atria, officials said.

It caused inflammation that pushed on the heart in a way that temporarily blocked blood flow, what the doctors called a “silent heart attack.”

This is not a traditional heart attack where an artery is blocked, and doctors said that Whittington’s arteries were healthy. The invading pellet also irritated the atria and caused an irregular heartbeat.

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