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| Dem Site: Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer |
| 2006-02-22 |
| I never heard of this site before but saw it and thought I'd get all of your input. I'm pretty sure hes looney though. By DOUG THOMPSON Feb 22, 2006, 07:35 Email this article Printer friendly page A written report from Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago says Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting. Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions, the report said. According to those who have read the report and talked with others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up. We talked with a number of administration officials who are privy to inside information on the Vice President's shooting "accident" and all admit Secret Service agents and others saw Cheney consume far more than the "one beer' he claimed he drank at lunch earlier that day. "This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it." Cheney has a long history of alcohol abuse, including two convictions of driving under the influence when he was younger. Doctors tell me that someone like Cheney, who is taking blood thinners because of his history of heart attacks, could get legally drunk now after consuming just one drink. If Cheney was legally drunk at the time of the shooting, he could be guilty of a felony under Texas law and the shooting, ruled an accident by a compliant Kenedy County Sheriff, would be a prosecutable offense. But we will never know for sure because the owners of the Armstrong Ranch, where the shooting occurred, barred the sheriff's department from the property on the day of the shooting and Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III agreed to wait until the next day to send deputies in to talk to those involved. Sheriff's Captain Charles Kirk says he went to the Armstrong Ranch immediately after the shooting was reported on Saturday, February 11 but both he and a game warden were not allowed on the 50,000-acre property. He called Salinas who told him to forget about it and return to the station. "I told him don't worry about it. I'll make a call," Salinas said. The sheriff claims he called another deputy who moonlights at the Armstrong ranch, said he was told it was "just an accident" and made the decision to wait until Sunday to investigate. "We've known these people for years. They are honest and wouldn't call us, telling us a lie," Salinas said. Like all elected officials in Kenedy County, Salinas owes his job to the backing and financial support of Katherine Armstrong, owner of the ranch and the county's largest employer. "The Armstrongs rule Kenedy County like a fiefdom," says a former employee. Secret Service officials also took possession of all tests on Whittington's blood at the hospitals where he was treated for his wounds. When asked if a blood alcohol test had been performed on Whittington, the doctors who treated him at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi or the hospital in Kingsville refused to answer. One admits privately he was ordered by the Secret Service to "never discuss the case with the press." It's a sure bet that is a private doctor who treated the victim of Cheney's reckless and drunken actions can't talk to the public then the memo that shows the Vice President was drunk as a skunk will never see the light of day. |
| Posted by:Yosemite Sam |
| #12 so what if he was drinking? Good grief. The liberals are for liberalizing drugs - but think it's a capital crime if Cheney gets drunk. Get a life. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-02-22 23:19 |
| #11 Anyway, I thought the problem with that incident is that Cheney was hunting lawyers *outside* of season. Drunk or not, I want him to be fined, lawyers may not be endangered, especially in the USA, I simply can't admit that kind of reckless hunting during reproductive season. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-02-22 17:27 |
| #10 Did Cheney wait longer than Teddy? Was Whittington bleeding the whole time? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-02-22 17:24 |
| #9 (sniff, sniff) Is that bullshit I smell? |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-02-22 17:23 |
| #8 I get from a semi-reliable source (er, me), according to the reports (ok, hallucinations) that the ranch itself was blotto drunk, causing the ground to lurch and be "wavy", resulting in misunderaiming and the dischargification of the VPs' nug. Now blow some holes in THAT reality... go ahead... I dare ya... |
| Posted by: Hyper 2006-02-22 17:22 |
| #7 Apparently that ranch is basically the whole county. I totally want to take the tour: "Here is our barn, here is our vegetable garden, here is our Grand Jury..." |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-02-22 16:51 |
| #6 "Capitol Hill Blue" is moonbat country. This is the same clown that was peddling a story that President Bush was "erratic" and mentally unstable back in the 2004 campaign. (Check the comment thread here for more detail.) So far out there that even the NYT and DU and Kos don't believe it. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-02-22 16:49 |
| #5 I call bullshit. The secret service would never let drunk folks run around with guns near their charge. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-02-22 16:25 |
| #4 Lol. I can't remember which SnarkMeister posted it, but they parodied the Skeery event where he blamed the SecSvc guy for knocking him down on the ski slopes. Toss that in here for humor and derision of the conspiracy idjits and Bush-haters. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-22 16:21 |
| #3 Doctors tell me that someone like Cheney, who is taking blood thinners because of his history of heart attacks, could get legally drunk now after consuming just one drink. Sounds like the "lawyers" that Lawrence O'Donnell allegedly talked to. A written report from Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago says Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting. One might wonder how Doug Thompson managed to get his hands on that briefing... "This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it." And who talked to him in the White House? |
| Posted by: eLarson 2006-02-22 16:08 |
| #2 secret service agents, you just cant trust em. |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2006-02-22 16:02 |
| #1 You can bet there was a babe involved too. |
| Posted by: Ted Kennedy 2006-02-22 16:00 |