Bush, the Gravedigger, and Cheney's Gunshot Victim
by Jerry Politex
Editor, Bush Watch
Feb. 16, 2006 /bushwatch.net/ Although he's often been present at the relevant speeches over the years, maybe Dick Cheney wasn't listening to George W. Bush as he hyped his "responsibility society."
After days of pressure, Vice President Dick finally fessed up in public to shooting Harry Whittington while quail hunting on a ranch in Texas. Folks outside of Texas were still asking, "Harry who?"
Texan Molly Ivins describes Whittington as "a rare Texas Republican who is seriously civilized, particularly on the issues of crime, punishment and prisons." Over the years, Whittington, a 78-year-old Austin lawyer who is presently best known around town and in court for his real estate holdings, has been on the Texas Board of Corrections and the chairman of Texas Public Finance Authority
Looking at Whittington in a broader frame, New York Times reporter Simon Romero tells us that Cheney's hunting companion "was known largely for his pivotal role in building the Republican Party in Texas into a powerhouse." Along the way, the earthy Whittington, a University of Texas Law School grad, helped smooth the way for tenderfoot Bush during his unsuccessful Senate campaign in 1964, and continues to raise money and provide advice to Republican candidates to this day.
In 1999, then-Gov. Bush got Whittington to chair the Funeral Service Commission, a regulatory state agency. At the time, Bush was embroiled in a whistleblower lawsuit that contended that Bush and Robert Waltrip, the owner of SCI -- the largest funeral corporation in Texas -- were in cahoots. Waltrip, a Houston-based CEO, had previously donated $45,000 to the Bush campaigns for governor and $100,000 to Daddy Bush for his presidential library at College Station. Here's how Romero describes it:
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