By now we all know the timeline---Texas lawyer Whittington was shot by Vice President Cheney and rushed to a local hospital in an ambulance. While Mr. Whittington was being examined at a hospital, Mr. Cheney stayed at the ranch, had a nice meal and possibly a cocktail, then went off to his cabin to brood.
A couple of days later, according to his physicians, Mr. Whittington suffered a mild "heart attack" apparently caused by at least one piece of lead birdshot jammed up next to the upper part of his heart. Eventually that cleared up, but up to 200 lead pellets were allowed to remain in this 78-year-old man. There is apparently no record of Cheney ever visiting Mr. Whittington in the hospital during his ordeal. When Whittington left the hospital last week, his face was covered with tiny holes and splotches. At no time in his life did Mr. Whittington ever suspect that he would have to spend his remaining years with one or more lead pellets in his body--some next to his heart. But you can bet that he---or some member of his family--is thinking about it now.
I don't know the Whittingtons, but if they're like most families I know, blood trumps politics every time. And it's a fair bet that someone in that clan---perhaps Mr. Whittington himself---has come to the obvious conclusion that getting shot in the face and chest with 200 lead pellets at 30 yards is an extremely unhealthy thing to have happen to you---and the physical and medical consequences have yet to play out. Things like this take time, but if Mr. Whittington's health takes a turn for the worse, someone in the Whittington clan---maybe the victim himself---may want to tell the world what really happened.
Which, of course, will be terrible news for the Vice President. Cheney is a drinker. And anyone who knows Texas politics and the half-life of alcohol in the system can make an educated guess why the sheriff's investigator was turned away at the door. As for the medical aspect, no one who understands a little bit about physiology will accept the proposition that the pellet reached Whittington's heart via the bloodstream. More likely it simply entered his chest cavity after penetrating his skin, muscles and other tissue. If so, the gunshot may have resulted in a pneumothorax---a life-threatening condition in which holes in the chest wall allows air to enter the cavity, potentially resulting in a collapsed lung. And of course, there's the issue of lead--a neurotoxin that one does not want residing in one's body.
Which brings us back to Mr. Whittington and his family---particularly his family's sensibilities. Ask yourself the question---if some individual had caused your father to be admitted to the emergency room and placed in intensive care, how would you feel if that person didn't bother to ride along in the ambulance--or even visit the hospital--but instead had a nice Texas-style meal, downed a favorite cocktail, then ambled off in the darkness to brood about the whole thing?
Perhaps wealthy Texas Republicans like the Whittingtons are different than the rest of us--and that friendship and shared political philosophies trumps simple courtesy. And perhaps that bizarre apology from Mr. Whittington to the Veep was the last we will hear from anyone in the Whittington family on the subject.
But given what can happen from this little event---I wouldn't bet on it.