Post by Moses on Feb 14, 2006 2:29:15 GMT -5
The Times February 14, 2006
Cheney accused of cover-up over hunter shooting
From Tom Baldwin in Washington
WHEN the Vice-President of the United States discharges his shotgun into the face of 78-year-old Republican lawyer it seems strange that the world does not hear about it for nearly 24 hours.
Harry Whittington was peppered with bird pellets by Dick Cheney on Saturday during a quail hunt at a ranch in Texas. He was taken to hospital and put in intensive care.
President Bush and White House staff were informed that night. But it was not until 18 hours after the shooting that the news emerged and then only because a reporter got a tip-off from Katharine Armstrong, the ranch owner. Yesterday, Mr Cheney was battling media claims of a cover-up, while the status of police inquiries remained unclear.
The local sheriff’s office in Kennedy County was saying as little as possible. “We have no information to release,” Sandra Guzman, the sheriff’s assistant, said. When did they know about the incident — and what did they know? “I can’t say, an investigation is going on,” Ms Guzman said. Are you investigating to see if a crime was committed? “I’m not sure,” she replied and then hung up.
A spokesman for the Texas Rangers said: “The Secret Service are handling everything. When I call up and ask for information, people get weird with me.”
The White House press corps were turning their fire on Scott McClellan, the President’s spokesman. They were incredulous that the media had not been told sooner. He was accused of “totally ducking and weaving”, and “being a jerk”.
Mr McClellan, who is usually treated with more respect, pleaded with reporters not to yell at him, and implored them to “calm down”.
The way that information is disseminated by the Vice-President’s office is already controversial, given the prosecution of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, his former chief of staff, for alleged leaks about a CIA operative. Yesterday Mr Cheney and his staff were being attacked for revealing too little, not too much.
Mrs Armstrong said yesterday that everyone at the ranch had been so “focused” on getting medical treatment for Mr Whittington that it was not until Sunday that she reported the incident to The Caller-Times, a newspaper based 60 miles away in Corpus Christi. Larger Texas newspapers in Dallas, Houston and Austin were not informed.
According to her eye-witness account, Mr Cheney and Pam Willeford, the US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, were approached from behind by Mr Whittington just as the Vice-President was turning to shoot. “Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good,” she said.
As for Mr Whittington, he was yesterday said to be recovering from wounds to his face and neck that resembled chicken pox. Mr McClennan said that the Vice-President had visited him and “was pleased to see that he was doing fine and in good spirits. I know the President is, as well.”
Mr Bush knows Mr Whittington from his days as Texas Governor. In 1999 he put him in charge of a commission regulating funerals. Eliza May, who had headed the commission, was then suing the state, saying she had been dismissed because she investigated a funeral-home chain owned by a friend of Mr Bush. The suit was settled two years later. Mr Whittington donated $1,000 to Mr Bush’s first presidential campaign and $2,000 to his re-election.
Mr Cheney, a staunch ally of the National Rifle Association, has experienced political discomfort from hunting before — not least over a duck shooting trip with a conservative Supreme Court judge in Louisiana in 2004 at a time that the court was hearing a case involving him the Vice-President.
White House sources yesterday were unaware of any evidence that Mr Cheney may have consumed alcohol before the accident on Saturday. Mary Matalin, one of his advisers, said: “He was not careless or incautious. He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to do.”
HUNTING VOTES, DUCKING ISSUES
* Lyndon Johnson often invited politicians to hunt at his Texas ranch as a test of their toughness. John F. Kennedy killed his first deer on a trip to Johnson’s ranch after the 1960 election
* Bill Clinton went on a duck hunting trip in 1993 to reassure sportsmen that his pro-gun control stance did not mean he was against hunting. The party brought down only one duck and, in typical Clinton fashion, there was some question over whether he fired the fatal shot
* While campaigning for Governor of Texas in 1994, George W. Bush took reporters along for the first day quail season. Instead of bagging a quail, Bush shot a killdeer, an endangered species of bird
* To downplay his image as a liberal elitist, John Kerry invited the press on a carefully staged hunt for geese in Ohio in the 2004 campaign. He bagged one bird but someone else carried it home
FIRING LINE
Heated exchanges took place when Scott McClellan faced the press.
QUESTION Why didn’t we hear about it for 24 hours?
MR McCLELLAN I think the first priority was making sure that Mr Whittington was getting the medical care that he needed. And I know that the Vice-President’s Office worked with Mrs Armstrong to get that information out, as well. My understanding is Mrs Armstrong contacted the local paper early Sunday morning.
Q You and the press duty officer don’t administer medical treatment. So why couldn’t the press office have alerted us Saturday night, when you guys found out?
McCLELLAN Well, the Vice-President’s Office was working to get that information out, and they got it out Sunday morning through Mrs Armstrong.
Q Well, why the wait?
McCLELLAN Well, I think they wanted to make sure that he was getting the care he needed. And then I mean, they proactively worked to get it out . . .
Q Well, I mean, you know, you can certainly make sure he’s getting the care and tell us, too.
McCLELLAN And they worked to get it out.
Q The Vice-President shoots somebody accidentally and you don’t — and you know this Saturday night and you don’t think that you should alert us to this? . . . We didn’t know for nearly 24 hours.
McCLELLAN That’s not correct. Sunday morning . . .
Q When I’m asking you a serious question, you should give us a serious answer . . .
McCLELLAN You don’t have to yell.
Q . . . instead of jerking us around.
McCLELLAN You don’t have to yell.
Q . . . it is you made a decision, when you knew Saturday night, not to inform the press corps? Why you left it for the Vice-President's Office through a ranch owner to tell local media and not the White House press corps?
McCLELLAN I think they worked to get it out, and they worked to get it out as soon as they could
Q Promptly?
McCLELLAN I think as soon as possible. But the first priority needs to be on making sure that they're receiving medical care.
The ambulance got there, the Secret Service were working, he had many doctors with him.
McCLELLAN That's right.
Q So that was taken care of. The question of informing the press and the American people is another subject
Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.