Whittington Was In Drunken Veeps Firing Line

WHY DID CHENEY SHOOT LAWYER FROM CLOSE RANGE?

Vice President Dick Cheney shot Texas lawyer, Harry Whittington, from a closer range than previously thought and the presence of alcohol were the reasons why the accidental shooting was reported nearly a day later.

The original story and, quite frankly every subsequent version since, has failed to pass the sniff test.

The New York Times and numerous health experts have reported that the BB-sized pellets lodged in Whittington's chest would have needed a far greater velocity than possible from 30 yards away.

Dr. O.Wayne Isom, the chairman of the heart and chest surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, noted this closer proximity of Cheney to Whittington by excluding the possibility of the pellets reaching the heart via the bloodstream.

"The pellets wre approximately five millimeters, about the size of a BB, and larger than most blood vessels", he said.

Moreover, it's highly unlikely that over the distance of 30 yards that the spraying of Cheney's birdshot would not have dispersed into a far larger area than the relatively small area of wounds on Whittington's body--roughly a portion of his left jaw, neck and over his heart and lung.

The probability that Cheney shot Whittington from close range is very high. The presence of beer with this hunting party may be unrelated to the accident, though.

If anything, the fact that Cheney had one beer at lunch (everyone knows one beer, usually means two or three) only magnifies the inherent comedy of this already infamous storyline. It's quite possible that the effects of alcohol and the shooting are unrelated.

The problem, though, in relation to why it took nearly 18 hours to report the accident, is that the mere presence of alcohol would have vaulted this problem into the stratosphere of full-blown crisis. Although, after Whittington's mild heart Tuesday, it reached those heights anyway.

This is why the local authorities were shooed away from Cheney until around 6am the next day and why the Karl Rove machine was called in.

This story, though, is still missing crucial information, most of which, could probably be derived from a medical point of view. What medications are Whittington currently taking? Was a test done on his blood alcohol? Was he conscious when he arrived at the medical center?

The biggest part of this puzzle lies in why was Whittington shot from such a range that birdshot could embed itself through numerous layers of clothing and lodge itself in his heart.

Many in this press have this completely wrong when they opine that the cover-up of this story over the weekend made things worse. It's pure folly to suggest such a thing when it's been this administration modus operandi to hide facts of potentially damaging national consequences, let alone Dick Cheney blasting his hunting partner.

The national media smells blood like no story in recent memory and will not stop until this story is broken wide open. The surrealness of the entire tale has the potential to become a cottage publishing industry for the next 25 years and that sort of opportunity has happened since two guys at the Washington Post teamed up with a guy named Deep Throat.