Whittington to head the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which licenses and regulates funeral directors and embalmers in the state. Whittington is a former member of the Texas Board of Corrections, which runs the state's prisons, and he once led the Texas Public Finance Authority Board. Whittington is a friend of the Armstrong family and is a frequent visitor to the ranch, one of the largest private properties in Texas.

Cheney, who sometimes hunts there several times a year. The Armstrong Ranch is a familiar hunting venue for Republican politicians, including Mr. 'They did what they had to according to law.' 'It was accidental, a hunting accident,' Sheriff Ramon Salinas III of Kenedy County said from his office in Sarita, Tex., adding that the Secret Service notified him Saturday of the episode. The incident, which occurred at about 5:30 p.m., was first reported on the Web site of The Corpus Christi Caller-Times on Sunday. Whittington had approached the group, hitting him on his right side, on his cheek, neck and chest. Cheney, 65, fired his shotgun without realizing that Mr. But Katharine Armstrong, who was with the hunting party at the time of the shooting, said that Mr. White House officials did not release details of the accident. Whittington, 78, was taken by helicopter to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit on Sunday, according to Michele Trevino, a hospital spokeswoman.

Cheney, a practiced hunter, shot the lawyer, Harry Whittington, on an outing at the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas. 12 - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a prominent Austin, Tex., lawyer on Saturday while the two men were quail hunting in South Texas, firing a shotgun at the man while trying to aim for a bird, a member of the hunting party said.

Strange Bargain by Harry Whittington