Subject:  Dick "The Penis" Cheney Arrested (Drunk Driving) 2X |
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Dick & Bush
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Date Posted: 05:49:12 02/14/06 Tue
In reply to:
NEDRA PICKLER (Associated Press)
's message, "Cheney Cited for Breaking Hunting Law" on 05:42:29 02/14/06 Tue
Hunting Accident
On February 11, 2006, Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a prominent Texas attorney, in the face, neck, and upper torso with an Italian-made Perazzi 28-gauge shotgun, loaded with number 7 1/2 birdshot, at a range of 30 yards, while hunting quail. As of Tuesday, February 14, Whittington was in stable condition.
While the accident occurred on Saturday, February 11, the news of it wasn't released until after 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, February 12. As of February 14, there has been no explanation for the delay; however, ABC News had reported that a call from from the ranch's owner, Katharine Armstrong, to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, a newspaper in Corpus Christi may have been the source of the release.
CBS News also reports that local law enforcement officers were initially barred by Secret Service agents from interviewing Cheney. The Kenedy County Sheriff's office has cleared Cheney of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter.
While he has a Texas non-resident hunting license, a report from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department states that Cheney was in violation of Texas law in that he did not have a US $7 "upland game bird stamp." A warning citation, which state officials described as routine and carries no fine or penalty, will be issued to Cheney, because the requirement is new. Cheney has since sent a $7 check to the Texas Fish and Wildlife Department to cover the cost of the missing stamp.
Dick Cheney is the first known Vice President to shoot someone while in office since Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in the famous Hamilton-Burr duel. An interesting coincidence between the events is that both victims were attorneys.
The incident has made Cheney the target of jokes and public ridicule. The Daily Show proclaimed "Cheney's Got a Gun" in parody of Aerosmith's song "Janie's Got a Gun."
George Clooney ribs Dick Cheney at Oscar lunch By Arthur Spiegelman
Mon Feb 13, 9:43 PM ET
George Clooney, tongue firmly in cheek, said he wanted Vice President Dick Cheney to be his date at the Oscars. And Felicity Huffman said she was happy just to be going as a nominee and not a seat filler or part of the catering team.
"I turn to my husband (actor William H. Macy) several times a day and say, 'Hey, I forgot to tell you something. I am going to the Academy Awards," Huffman, nominated for playing a man on the verge of becoming a woman in "Transamerica," confided to reporters on Monday.
The occasion was the 25th annual luncheon for Oscar contenders -- the one day on the Hollywood calendar when an actor who commands $20 million a picture is equal to a sound mixer who earns nowhere near that amount.
All they need to attend, and break bread with each other, is one hard-to-get ticket -- a nomination.
"This is fun. ... This is the golden time," said Clooney, who is nominated in three categories: best supporting actor in "Syriana," best director for "Good Night, and Good Luck" and best original screenplay for co-writing the drama about newsman Edward R. Murrow's 1950s confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Known as one of Hollywood's most stalwart liberals, Clooney drew a laugh at a pre-lunch press conference when he said, "I am bringing Dick Cheney as my date. He was so nice. He called me and invited me to go hunting."
The hunting reference was to Cheney's accidental shooting of a companion during a quail-hunting party over the weekend.
On a serious note, Clooney added, "I don't really feel like I am going to win. I just like the idea of showing up."
A total of 116 nominees showed up for lunch with another four stranded by a snowstorm in New York that closed that city's airports.
They feasted on "surf and turf," sea bass and fillet, traded gossip and posed for a group photograph in which Joaquin Phoenix, nominated for best actor playing singer Johnny Cash in "Walk The Line," almost stumbled into a giant Oscar statue when it came his turn to accept a nomination certificate and Oscar shirt.
Attendees, including such Hollywood luminaries as Clooney, director Steven Spielberg and past Oscar Winner Charlize Theron, listened intently as Academy Awards telecast producer Gil Cates delivered his traditional warning to winners to keep their speeches short and sweet.
"Who says an acceptance speech should be about gratitude," he growled, warning people to thank as few as possible.
He also served notice: "You pull out a piece of paper and the next thing you will hear is a very large orchestra."
The Oscars, which this year will be presented March 5, are traditionally a long-winded affair, known for rambling thank-yous and the occasional speech notable for its brevity.
One of the most famous in the latter category was when Alfred Hitchcock ambled onto the stage to accept a special honorary Oscar -- he never won for one of his films -- and said a simple "Thank you," before departing.
First official report released in Cheney hunting accident
FEBRUARY 13--The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department today issued a report on Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting Saturday of a fellow quail hunter on a sprawling Texas ranch. The hunting accident report, a copy of which you can find below, briefly recounts how Cheney plugged Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Austin lawyer, with birdshot in the face, neck, and chest. According to the state report, Cheney was wearing a "blaze orange" cap and "coat/vest" and brown trousers and was toting an Italian-made Perazzi 28-gauge shotgun. In addition to the document's release, wildlife officials reported today that while Cheney had purchased a valid non-resident hunting license, he did not obtain a required "upland game bird stamp." As a result, a warning citation--which carries no fine or penalty--will be issued to Cheney, which state officials described as "routine." And as for whether Cheney would have needed to previously take a hunters education course, state wildlife officials noted that such classes are only required of hunters born on or after September 2, 1971. Cheney was born January 30, 1941. While yet to release its report on the shooting, the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office this afternoon issued a press release noting that an "investigation reveals that there was no alcohol, or misconduct involved in the incident." In an interview with deputies, Whittington "collaborated Vice President Cheney's statement," according to the release, which concluded, "This was no more than a hunting accident."
When news of George W. Bush's drunken driving arrest surfaced during the final week of the 2000 presidential campaign, Republicans tried to dismiss it as one of those "youthful indiscretions" Bush had steadfastly refused to discuss. Of course, when he got popped in Kennebunkport in 1976, Bush was 30 years old, hardly a kid.
Vice President Dick Cheney, on the other hand, could actually argue that his two DWIs came when he was young and reckless.
Court and police records obtained by The Smoking Gun show that Cheney was convicted of drunk driving twice during an eight-month period in the early 1960s in his home state of Wyoming. The two convictions came when Cheney was 21 and 22 and resulted in fines and a brief suspension of his driver's license.
On November 2, in the wake of the Bush DWI discovery, a Cheney spokesperson told reporters that the vice presidential candidate also had a rap sheet. But the Bush-Cheney campaign refused to provide any further details about the DWI busts. So TSG will now handle that chore.
Cheney first privately disclosed the arrests in 1989, after he had been nominated for Secretary of Defense. According to an account in Bob Woodward's "The Commanders," Cheney told members of the Senate Armed Services committee about the DWI arrests during a closed confirmation hearing. Cheney told the senators that he believed it would be best to publicly disclose the busts. But Armed Services committee members said there was no need for the disclosure and subsequently confirmed Cheney in a 20-0 vote.
Following the May 1991 publication of Woodward's book, there was no mention of Cheney's arrests until the brief confirmation offered by the candidate's spokesperson last November. But the vice president himself mentioned his rap sheet in an interview in the current issue (dated May 7) of The New Yorker. Cheney noted that after dropping out of Yale in early 1961, he found himself "working, building power lines, having been in a couple of scrapes with the law." The busts, he said, made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road, if I continued on that course."
Cheney's first DWI conviction came in November 1962 when he was 21. According to this docket from Cheyenne's Municipal Court, Cheney was nailed for drunkenness and "operating motor vehicle while intoxicated." A Cheyenne Police Judge found Cheney guilty of the two charges and hit him with a 30-day suspension of his driver's license. Cheney also had to forfeit a $150 bond posted at the time of his arrest. Further information about the case--such as the defendant's blood alcohol content or whether Cheney was jailed following the bust--is unavailable since other court records from that period have been destroyed, according to Wyoming officials.
Details of Cheney's second Wyoming arrest, in July 1963, have also fallen victim to time and records destruction practices at the local Municipal Court. But a police arrest card (similar to the one that haunted Dubya) maintained by the Rock Springs Police Department shows that Cheney was fined $100 for his second DWI conviction. The card lists the charge against Cheney, who was then working as a groundman laying power lines, as "11-44," the criminal code classification for drunken driving, according to Police Chief Neil Kourbelas. At the time of the Rock Springs arrest, Kourbelas said that local cops and judges would not have known that young Cheney was a boozing 'n driving recidivist. The police department, Kourbelas said, "wouldn't have had the ability to automatically check with other jurisdictions to find out if anyone had had prior arrests or convictions. We could have arrested Jack the Ripper back then and had no idea what he had done."
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