Cheney Partied On, After Sending Whittington to the ICU --->>>

[Stephanie]

So Dick has lunch and "a beer" around 1:00, presumably, counting back from the 3:00 resumption of the hunt...

Cheney: Correct. We'd taken a break at lunch -- go down under an old -- ancient oak tree there on the place, and have a barbecue. I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hourlong tour of the ranch, with a ranch hand driving the vehicle, looking at game. We didn't go back into the field to hunt quail until about, oh, sometime after 3:00 p.m.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/15/cheney.transcript/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Then he shoots the guy around 5:30-ish...

Armstrong said someone in the security detail called the ambulance, which arrived 20 or 30 minutes later.

After the ambulance left "in a cloud of dust," she drove Cheney to the ranch house, staying in touch with family members who followed Whittington to the hospital and getting updates that he would be OK.

http://www.ksat.com/news/7043932/detail.html?rss=ant&psp=news

But does not accompany him to the hospital. Instead he goes back to the ranch house and pours himself a cocktail...

Armstrong, a longtime friend of the Cheney family, told CNN before the vice president's interview that she never saw Cheney or Whittington "drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/15/cheney/index.html

Then sits down to dinner with the other house-party guests...

Afterward, she said, her brother-in-law and another guest went to the hospital to check on Mr. Whittington. The rest of the party had dinner, and Mr. Cheney, who had flown to Texas on Friday night, departed on Sunday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html

He was very worried, but he went to bed early anyway...

Back at the ranch, the group ate dinner and went to bed by 10 p.m. She described Cheney's demeanor as "very worried" about Whittington.

http://www.ksat.com/news/7043932/detail.html?rss=ant&psp=news

In the morning they called the local newspaper, but did not cancel the quail lunch party, with guests from the neighboring ranch...

Armstrong contacted the Corpus Christi Caller-Times around 9 a.m. Central time on Sunday. Asked why the information was not disseminated on Saturday night, immediately after the accident, Armstrong said: "The last thing that was on our mind was the media. We were thinking about Harry."

***

The manager of a ranch in neighboring Brooks County attended a quail lunch at the Armstrong Ranch headquarters midday Sunday with Cheney. Lavoyger Durham, manager of El Tule Ranch, said the luncheon talk was of "North Korea, India, China, Taiwan."

There was no discussion about the accident the night before, he said, but it became known at the luncheon that Cheney asked to have the morning hunt canceled. "He didn't want to shoot," Durham said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021300452_2.html

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, Cheney pays a visit to the "friend" he has put in the ICU. He claims it was shortly after noon. Must have been quite an early lunch...

Q: By the next morning, had you spoken again to Mr. Whittington?

A: The next morning I talked to his wife. And then I went to the hospital in Corpus Christi and visited with him.

Q: When was that?

A: Oh, it was shortly after noon on Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_interview_text_1

Party Hearty, Big Dick! Don't let shooting a man and sending him to the ICU stop you from enjoying yourself!

[babylonsister]

1. There's a joke in there somewhere about a stiff one, but

not. going. there.

[Fridays Child]

2. His testosterone was probably at DEFCON 1.

[Beetwasher]

3. Love The Pink Tie He's Wearing In the Interview

Deadeye is so sensitive and caring, isn't obvious? I mean, he's wearing a pink tie, what else do you need to know?

[Fridays Child]

9. Stagecraft, right down to the neckwear.

[vptpt]

14. And look at the warm sneer

That should set everyone's mind at ease.

[Fridays Child]

19. I know. Perfect description. Warm sneer.

:thumbsup:

[Cha]

42. Jon Stewart would have loved

to use that one("warm sneer") when he did his rif on cheney last night. Jon actually did do a pretty good imitation of cheney talking out of the side of his mouth.

[Stephanie]

66. LETTERMAN STOLE YOUR JOKE!

lol! he totally stole it! wooo hoooooo! :yourock:

[Botany]

4. None of this passes the smell test.

:think:

[FreedomAngel82]

35. They're trying to hard

[myrna minx]

5. This becomes curiouser and curiousier...

You know if I have shot a 78 year old man in the face, I wouldn't start happy hour early. But you know, I don't have Darth in my name.

[napi21]

12. If I shot anybody ANTWHERE, I'd be shaking so bad

from fear, sorrow, anger at myself, and near a breakdown, I have to say I'd be pouring several stiff coctails!

Now, I wouldn't be sitting down to dinner...wouldn't be able to eat! And I sure would have canceled the lunch or what ever it was the next day!

[Angry Girl]

16. "Worst day *chomp* *chomp* *slurp* of my *burp* life!"

And I missed that goddam quail too!

[eppur_se_muova]

75. "Oh, hell. I didn't go because I wasn't interested."

"That mike's not hot, is it?"

[maddezmom]

6. great timeline

puts the old Cheney is a tea-tottler to bed.


\Armstrong, a longtime friend of the Cheney family, told CNN before the vice president's interview that she never saw Cheney or Whittington "drink at all on the day of the shooting until after the accident occurred, when the vice president fixed himself a cocktail back at the house."

[FreedomAngel82]

36. So did he shoot him

before or after lunch?

[Flying Dream Blues]

61. Hey now! How do you know it wasn't a Roy Rogers? :)

[Jackpine Radical]

7. I posted this elsewhere, but think it bears repeating here:

Lemme tell ya a true story...
There was this guy in my home town who was fallin'down drunk when he drove his car into a telephone pole. He extricated himself, staggered to a bar 2 blocks away, sloshed down a tumbler or 2 of booze, & called the cops. When they got there they couldn't establish that he had been drunk while driving because he had drunk so much AFTER THE ACCIDENT in front of witnesses. That was in the days before accurate breathalyzers.

[DearAbby]

68. Been thinking about this when you posted it elsewhere

I can't remember where...but it can work,



:::they couldn't establish that he had been drunk while driving because he had drunk so much AFTER THE ACCIDENT in front of witnesses. That was in the days before accurate breath test. :::

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

8. Barbecue! He can't even tell the truth about what they ate!

Salon has a story by Sydney Blumenthal that says the first acount by the Armstrong women listed this as the menu:

antelope, jicama salad, bread and Dr Pepper

Real down home food there, antelope chased down with a fine Dr. Pepper.

[maddiejoan]

11. Ahhhhhh. Dr. Pepper!

So then everyone at the ranch got "peppered".

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

17. I waitressed at a country club when I was young.

I served those rich old guys a lot more drinks for lunch than Dr. Pepper and one beer, that's for sure, and I'm sure lots of them had heart conditions.

Hi maddiejoan! :hi:

[Joe Fields]

59. Was that 12 year old "Dr. Pepper"?

[maddiejoan]

65. Yes 12 year old.

Glen Fiddich now makes Dr. Pepper

[KoKo]

18. Are you sure Blumenthal wasn't joking about the antelope? Other reports

say it was a "quail lunch." Presumably what they shot the day before. Bluementhal can be really sarcastic when he writes. But, if he knows it was "antelope" then it sure looks like maybe the "hunt" might have been for something other than quail...

odd...just as everything about the whole timeline and circumstances just doesn't seem to hold up.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

21. Here's the quote

"Feb. 15, 2006 | In the original account authorized by Vice President Dick Cheney of his shooting of Harry Whittington, given by Katharine Armstrong, heiress and hunting companion, to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and later elaborated on to other news outlets, the 11 members of the hunting party set off on the morning of Feb. 11 in two trucks for the wilds of the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch in search of quails. After lunch, whose menu was described as antelope, jicama salad, bread and Dr Pepper, the hunters divided into two groups. Cheney went off with Armstrong; Pamela Pitzer Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein; and Whittington."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/02/15/cheney/print.html

Seems to come from one of Mrs. Armstrong's ever-changing accounts.

[KoKo]

23. I'll bet that "antelope" came from one of the "Safari Shoots,"

that crowd likes to join in on.

[Stephanie]

27. so antelope lunch on Saturday & quail lunch on Sunday

and a little accidental shooting and life-threatening injury in between. Plus cocktails & dinner.

[Stephanie]

26. quail lunch was on Sunday -

when was the antelope supposed to be? probably it was the Saturday BBQ.

[dmkinsey]

73. I think you're confusing the lunch before the shooting

antelope and the Sunday "Quail Lunch"

[SPKrazy]

53. Antelope Because He's From Wyoming?

I've never eaten antelope, but I've seen them across Wyoming.

This menu sounds like a real down home barbeque LOL

[Missy M]

10. I have read so many different time lines, we will never know....

the whole truth about the shooting. A beer at lunch and a cocktail at dinner constitutes no alcohol, according to Ms. Armstrong. No alcohol was also stated on the police report, which means someone was not telling the truth in their police statement. Is there a punishment for telling a lie on a police statement?

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

13. Excellent Job! This is what i'm interested in

~The manager of a ranch in neighboring Brooks County attended a quail lunch at the Armstrong Ranch headquarters midday Sunday with Cheney. Lavoyger Durham, manager of El Tule Ranch, said the luncheon talk was of "North Korea, India, China, Taiwan."

There was no discussion about the accident the night before, he said, but it became known at the luncheon that Cheney asked to have the morning hunt canceled. "He didn't want to shoot," Durham said.~

So invited guests were still in the dark the next day?

[dweller]

15. "He didn't want to shoot," Durham said.~

they've edited out "anyone else" , didn't they.

dp

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

22. No, I meant Durham didn't even know about the accident

It was the day after and Lavoyger Durham, a guest, wasn't aware that the accident had even happened. They were still trying to keep the lid on.

[goodhue]

39. Yes, this is an excellent question

Did the invited guests to Sunday's quail luncheon know Cheney had shot a man the day before while hunting the quail?

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

55. It does appear that Sundays Guests were not informed

of what had happened the night before. Rove was aware at this time, and the WH, no?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

71. Of course. They hadn't decided to release news yet, so they had to

pretend like everything was normal.

If they cancelled the lunch they'd have to give a reason to the guests, although they could've blown smoke up their arse as much as they have ours.

[daleo]

20. Shooting someone put him in the mood for more war

"The manager of a ranch in neighboring Brooks County attended a quail lunch at the Armstrong Ranch headquarters midday Sunday with Cheney. Lavoyger Durham, manager of El Tule Ranch, said the luncheon talk was of "North Korea, India, China, Taiwan."

There was no discussion about the accident the night before, he said..."

[goodhue]

24. Great timeline.

What I don't get is why he didn't go to the hospital earlier, and why the Sunday luncheon with invited guests was not cancelled. But I suppose the show must go on.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. I wondered that too.

How the heck can the man eat dinner, sleep all night, eat breakfast and lunch and THEN go visit the guy he shot? That is completely heartless. Anyone I know would have accompanied him to the hospital, stayed all night and had to be kicked out by the hospital staff. But then the folks I hang out with are human beings with hearts.

[jbnow]

49. If the shooter went with the victim

and the shooter was under the influence they'd be arrested, nit there beside the person.

If Cheney drank and hunted (I'm sure he did) that was so wrong, criminal. But it makes not going to the hospital then make sense, right or wrong.

But it's that luncheon without the victim being mentioned, nice meal,friendly gathering...and THEN the hospital? That is nothing but cold. Creepy.

[DoYouEverWonder]

52. He had to have a drink AFTER the shooting

to cover up the ALCOHOL that was in his blood before the shooting. That's why he couldn't go to the hospital.

[Tin Man]

72. Bingo! I was thinking the same thing.

If you (with witnesses present) consume ADDITIONAL alcohol AFTER the event, and subsequently YOU'RE administered a breathalyzer test or similar - you've created a scenario in which you can blame your inebriation SOLELY on the alcohol you consumed after the event.

Cheney: I was so shaken by the incident, I had to have a couple of cocktails to calm my nerves. I guess I had too many, and that's why I'm drunk, officer.

[proud2BlibKansan]

56. Yes that creeps me out too.

[Mabus]

45. He would have made it to the hospital earlier but he was busy

declassifying information for luncheon small talk about North Korea, India, China, Taiwan. That way the other guests (except for the poor unfortunate Heartwound Harry) would know which companies to invest in to increase their profits this year. The days when Scooter used to pass on that information are over now.

[bleever]

25. Every time he says, "Oh..." it's followed by a lie.

Preceded as well.

:)

[Ganja Ninja]

28. Most people would have gone to the hospital and ...

spent the night but Dick goes for dinner and drinks. If he could have he might have gone dancing too. The man has ice water in his veins.

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. One has to wonder if sitting down to have a cocktail is for the...

purpose of putting alcohol in the bloodstream to screw with the results of a BAC test.

[goodhue]

30. indeed

It would certainly help obfuscate the beers at lunch had Cheney's blood alcohol in fact been tested that evening.

[unblock]

31. he admits to drinking BEFORE AND AFTER the shooting

but was stone cold sober at the time?

riiiiiiiiiight.

[goodhue]

37. beer at lunch, cocktail before dinner, bed at ten

feeling badly he was

[Stephanie]

38. worst day of his life, at that moment

but then he got over it.

[unblock]

40. worse than 9/11? isn't that blasphemy or something?

[Stephanie]

41. they never say 9/11 was a *bad* thing

how bad could it be? after all, it changed everything!

[unblock]

46. right, all in all, it was a terrific year....

[Stephanie]

47. "All in all, it was a fabulous year, for Laura and me."

Too bad for all the rest of us.

[unblock]

48. FABULOUS! that's what it was!

:hi:

[goodhue]

64. !

[madokie]

33. The hurricane didn't and lots of people died in NO

[FreedomAngel82]

34. How disgusting!

I wouldn't want him as my friend no way in hell.

[SPKrazy]

54. Were You Even Considering It!?

:puke:

just kidding

[Earth_First]

43. The old "I had a beer or two" verbiage...

Jeebus H. Cripes, the man was drinking and hunting! What more needs to be spelled out here!?

[Roland99]

44. Nominated!

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

57. This thread was my first Nomination

The rules must be 50 posts before you can nominate. I really should read the guidelines, kinda going by the seat of my pants here.:freak:

[Stephanie]

58. Welcome to DU

I'm honored. :hi:

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

60. Thank You kindly for the Welcome Stephanie!

Your threads are always appreciated.:hi:

[Zan_of_Texas]

70. Great thread, Stef! Nice work.

Z

[SoCalDem]

50. "with a ranch hand driving the vehicle"

wqouldn;t want to imply that anyone who had been DRINKING was also driving...what with those THREE DUIs he has...but then it's still PRIVATE PROPERTY, so who would even know:shrug:

[Trish1168]

51. The alleged drinks afterward are a coverup. He was drunk when he fired.

He figures that's the best way to not be caught.

The sad fact is that there are plenty of responsbile hunters out there who never would take a drink while hunting. Many people stereotype hunters. I'm married to a hunter who would never do such a thing and he only shoots when he has an unobstructed shot and a sure shot.

But, this is only one little way that the VP is an asshole. Lets face it, he's done far worse stuff. I think about 2200 men are dead and tens of thousands are injured and scarred for life. I think this is worse. And lets not forget his desire to drive us into a despotism.

I used to be ambivalent toward the second amendment (right to bear arms)....until this regime came into power. Now, my attitude is that the more people who own guns the better and the gov't should not force people to register them. The point of the second amendment is to prevent despotism, and we ought not forget it.

[robbedvoter]

62. W went to bed at 10 PM on 911. It's only people, people! Not Gods,

like us!

[fishwax]

63. how touching that he didn't want to go hunting the next day

come on, dick, don't let a little shotgun blast to someone else's face ruin your fun.

Don't you know when you fall off a horse you've got to get right back on? If you don't go out the next day and complete a good day of hunting without peppering any from your party, well, you just might not ever be able to pull the trigger again.

[Stephanie]

69. So they were going to shoot on Sunday, had Cheney not asked them not to?

Who ARE these people? Oh, we shot one of our friends and he's in the ICU. See you at the shoot tomorrow morning!

[Nothing Without Hope]

67. Thanks for this timeline. I'll add it to the THREAD COMPILATION - LINKS:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=358x3133
thread title (2-14-06 RESEARCH FORUM): Compilation of threads on 2/06 Cheney shooting incident, including videos

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x411916
thread title (2-14-06 GD): Thread COMPILATION on Cheney shooting/Fuddgate - including VIDEOS:

[Stockholm]

74. Excellent timeline Stephanie!

K&R

[mod mom]

76. "I had a beer for lunch" and then several more after lunch? nt