There is a story in the Washington Post called Since Dick Cheney shot him, Harry Whittington’s aim has been to move on.
It’s about the man who was shot in the face in February of 2006 by Vice President Dick Cheney. No, not on the Senate floor — on a quail hunt in Texas.
While it may be delightful to poke fun at the vice president for accidentally shooting a pal, this Washington Post piece probably isn’t worth the time it takes to read five pages. It sounds like it should reveal new details, and it rests on the supposedly startling revelation that Dick Cheney never apologized to Harry Whittington for shooting him.
But there aren’t that many new details, and in fact Whittington doesn’t say that Cheney didn’t apologize. He says he won’t talk about that part of it, so you get the impression that Cheney never offered up a “my bad.”
At the time, in fact, the White House blamed Whittington for being in the line of fire. It wasn’t too long before it became clear that Cheney had whipped around and fired without really looking, and sent 200 birdshot pellets into the upper half of Whittington’s body.
Whittington was more seriously injured than we were led to believe. Pellets got close to his heart; he had a collapsed lung; he was in intensive care for more than a week; and he still has trouble talking because of shot in his larynx.
Other than that, the piece is largely a career recap of Whittington in Texas, without much on Dick Cheney, who Whittington barely knows anyway.
So maybe it’s simply a soft hit-piece on Dick Cheney, everyone’s favorite bad guy. But are we supposed to be surprised at the idea that Dick Cheney doesn’t apologize? I don’t think so.
Were we supposed to be surprised that Dick Cheney would use a weapon without knowing what could happen — or without knowing if he’s aiming in the right direction?
