Just askin', is all

Can someone please explain to me how the Vice President of the United States can shoot a 78-year-old companion, have one of his flacks on whose property the shooting took place describe the man's condition as "bruised more than bloodied", and yet the victim had to be airlifted to another hospital AND he's been in intensive care since the incident?

And can someone please tell me why none of this seems to bother anyone? Is shooting your friends, even carelessly and accidentally, OK if you're a Republican too?

UPDATE: Pam digs up Harry Whittington's less savory connections:

Whittington has long been active in Texas Republican politics; he was named by then-Gov. George W. Bush to the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which was involved in a major scandal investigating improperly licensed embalmers in Dallas during Shrub's tenure. The company, Kenyon International, has a subsidiary, SCI, that landed a Katrina body-counting contract. See this earlier Blend post.

ANOTHER UPDATE: ReddHedd at firedoglake, who has some experience with guns and hunting, points out Cheney's recklessness and irresponsible behavior:

One of the first things my dad taught me was how to move around in the woods or in a field to maximize my safety. Aside from the blaze orange requirements today for visual safety, you stay behind the person with the gun, you keep your muzzle pointed away from people and dogs who are your companion animals (and reports are that they were using dogs to flush out the birds, so guns would have been pointed skyward to minimize potential accidents for the dogs), and you never, never, NEVER squeeze off a round without first ascertaining the entire visual in front of where you will be shooting, within the designated path of your particular firearm (different guns have different ranges and shot patterns, depending on caliber and load) -- in other words, look very carefully before you ever pull the trigger.

That Mr. Whittington was in the line of sight for Dick Cheney is regrettable. But no matter whether Whittington walked into the line of sight or whether Cheney turned to shoot at quail and placed Whittington within his line (which is a more likely hunting scenario, given that you generally try to walk up on a hunting party from behind if at all possible if you are at all experienced, to minimize possible accidents), it is the hunter's responsibility at all times to be secure in what he is seeing before he ever pulls the trigger. Period.

And no amount of trying to spin this to a press corps who has never fired a shotgun takes away from the fact that the shooter always has the obligation to ensure safety before pulling the trigger. ALWAYS.

Not doing so as a kid would have gotten me a serious butt whipping and worse. My dad was very, very serious about it, having known idiots who went out in the woods and caused just this sort of accident. You never, ever shoot without looking very carefully first. Cardinal rule of gun safety number one.

[snip]

And call me crazy, but a blast from a 28-gauge shotgun that puts you in the ICU isn't something that's just a surface scrape or anything. It hurts like hell. And no amount of calling it a "spray" or "being peppered" or whatever takes away from the fact that: this man was shot, at close range, by the Vice President of the United States, who then told no one in the American public -- and no one else did either, including the local police -- for 22 hours.

Something is weird about this. I can't put my finger on what it is, and I'm awaiting a read of whatever police report gets released, but the whole narrative is odd. And reeks of covering for something.

And for those of you who are here from the right-wing side of the fence, and who think that the attention paid to this incident is unwarranted, because hey, shit happens, let me just ask you: What would YOU be posting on YOUR blogs if the shooter had been named "John Kerry"?