Cheney shooting victim ‘sorry for any trouble’

THE lawyer shot by US Vice President Dick Cheney during a hunting trip was discharged from a hospital yesterday, saying he was sorry for the trouble his hunting companion had faced.

“We all assume certain risks in what we do, in what activities we pursue,” Harry Whittington, 78, said as he stood outside the hospital with what appeared to be scars on an eyelid and scrapes on his neck.

“Accidents do and will happen,” he said.

The Austin, Texas, attorney’s statements were his first since he was hit in the face, neck and chest with birdshot on Saturday during a hunting trip at a south Texas ranch.

He had been listed in stable condition in a Corpus Christi hospital since suffering a mild heart attack on Tuesday after a shotgun pellet entered his heart.

However, the incident has turned into a PR disaster for the White House, which political experts are now calling a case study in how not to handle bad news.

At best, it has fed criticism of Mr Cheney as aloof and isolated. At worst, critics suggest, it has shown a president unable to control his own vice president.

“It’s a self-created nightmare,” said Lanny Davis, a troubleshooter for former President Bill Clinton who now heads a Washington law practice that specialises in legal crisis management.

“Cheney took a non-story, or a minor story, and created a huge negative story because of his stubbornness and his arrogance,” Mr Davis said.

Under pressure from the White House and outside Republican strategists, Mr Cheney took responsibility on Wednesday in a television interview for Saturday’s accident.

“I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend,” Mr Cheney said.

The interview followed three days of silence by the vice president.

Although White House aides earlier had conveyed distress about the slowness of Mr Cheney’s response, President George Bush said that the vice president had handled the matter “just fine” and had given a “powerful explanation”.

Mr Whittington said the past weekend encompassed “a cloud of misfortune and sadness”. “My family and I are deeply sorryfor everything Vice President Cheney and his family had to deal with.”