 The MSM may be all-but done with the Cheney shooting story, but that doesn't mean the story adds up.
AP has a roundup of the lingering discrepancies, including the fact that the supposed witness, Mrs. Armstrong, was no witness at all...
And a lot of people familiar with firearms are having a hell of a time squaring that 30 yards with the fact that more than 100 pellets wound up hitting Mr. Whittington at would have been a downward arc, including one that pierced his jacket, his clothing, his skin, muscles, bones and viscous tissue, to wind up in his heart. (As Dr. Bernadine Healy put it bluntly, Mr. Whittington wasn't "peppered," he was shot in the heart.
And then, there's the question of that pesky 18-hour delay... Why so long? The drinking? True, the official police and Parks Department reports say alcohol wasn't a factor in the accidental shooting, but those reports aren't based on police work or even a routine investigation. They're based on statements by Cheney and his hunting party, hardly objective observers of the situation. The authorities, in fact, declined to investigate the shooting, instead taking those statements as fact. It's as if police were called to the home of a shooting victim and asked her husband, "did you do it?" And when he says "of course not, officers," the cops enter his statement into the record and close the case.
As Ted Rall wrote last week:
Attorney Alan Dershowitz speculates that Cheney may have stalled to cover up drunkenness. "One possibility is that it takes approximately that period of time for alcohol to dissipate in the body and no longer be subject to accurate testing," Dershowitz writes. "It is fairly common for people involved in alcohol-related accidents to delay reporting them until the alcohol has left the body." Cheney has a history of public intoxication, having been twice convicted of DUI. ...and of course, there's this:
Sirius Radio's Alex Bennett says that "Cheney and Whittington went hunting with two women (not their wives), there was some drinking, and Whittington wound up shot." Bob Cesca alleges that one of the two women, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland Pamela Willeford is rumored to be "Cheney's Lewinsky." (Major difference: Lewinsky is hot.) Cesca elaborates: "The vice president's Secret Service detail had to decide what to do with Willeford by way of perhaps covering up her relationship with Cheney, and thus the delay in reporting the news." Wha??? Let's go to William F. Buckley for more on the "who was there" angle:
Who all was there? Well, Pamela Pitzer Willeford, ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and her husband, a physician; the hostess, Katharine Armstrong, and her sister, and her husband. Also Nancy Negley, an art philanthropist; Ben Love, a West Texas rancher; and the victim, Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old lawyer, and his wife. Also several outriders, whose duty was to flush the birds. Also a dozen American pointers and Labrador retrievers. Close to 5:30 p.m., the two shooting groups had bagged about 40 quail each, and were working now on the last covey.
About 100 yards away from the Jeep carrying the hostess and her sister (daughters of the fabled Anne Armstrong, whom Gerald Ford had once asked to run for vice president), "Mr. Cheney, Mr. Whittington and Ms. Willeford were walking in a line in a low spot on gently sloping ground. After Mr. Whittington bagged his birds he dropped out of sight, along with one of Ms. Armstrong's bird dogs." (Her name -- not originally disclosed to the press -- is "Gertie.") "Then, suddenly, he was in a dip about 30 yards away against the sun just as Mr. Cheney fired a blast from his Italian-made 28-gauge Perazzi shotgun." That is when Mr. Whittington "caught the spray of birdshot on the right side of his face, neck and chest." Nope. That story ain't over folks. This is the blogosphere, y'all.
More Cheney talk from:
- Taylor Marsh (all the conspiracies fit to print)
- An interesting prediction from the Larouchies last year: Cheney will start making mistakes...
- Neal Gabler bites the hand that feeds him, and pulls off the quote of the week on Fox News Watch (how did I miss this!): "when the Vice-President shoots somebody in the face, it's big news. I don't care where you live, even on Fox News, it's a big story."
- "Hahvahd" proff Niall Fergusen writes in the conservative London Telegraph that "trigger happy Cheney is a dangerous man to have on your side"
- And R.J. Eskow writes about why the Whittington shooting will be Cheney's Chappaquiddick.
Indeed he is. So the question is, will the hunting incident be a prelude to seeing Dick out the door? After all, his scandals run deep, and the CIA leak case could bring them to a head, as could the "phase II" Senate Intelligence Committee investigation (if Pat Roberts ever lets it happen...) and as could other lingering scandals with Cheney written all over them -- scandals like this one... (background here). Previous: Tags: politics, News, Cheney, Dick Cheney, Shooting, Hunting, Pamela Willeford |
