Bush Crony, Appointee Pamela Willeford's Presence in Hunting Party Unreported by MSM, White House Spokesperson
McClellan Leaves Her Name Out of White House Grilling Today...
By Brad Friedman on 2/13/2006, 11:49am PT  

We reported late last night on the identify of the third hunter in Dick Cheney's ill-fated hunting party. Apparently, word didn't get out to the DC press corps about it however, as they were asking McClellan for the name of that third hunger this morning at an incredible grilling he received on the matter (Must read transcript here, must watch video here courtesy of Crooks & Liars since the WH doesn't have it up for some reason.)

While McClellan was busy with his greatest tap-dance yet today, avoiding questions about how a Vice-President of the United States can shoot somebody and have it go wholly unreported for a full 24 hours, he didn't need to dance around about this one...because the White House Press Corp apparently doesn't read The BRAD BLOG. At least they didn't this morning.

I'll have to review the full transcript of the Press Briefing when it becomes available, but for my money, the top-question is: Had the victim, 78 year-old, Harry Whittington ended up dying, would we have ever heard about the shooting at all?

The way the White House has behaved so far, and apparently avoided properly informing local law-enforcement officials (one such report is here), suggests this all would have simply disappeared had Whittington actually been shot to death by Cheney.

Anyway, here's what we reported late last night at the end of our long Sunday "Live Blogging" on Deadeye Dick:

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THE THIRD HUNTER IS REVEALED... by Ron Brynaert over at RAW STORY. It seems the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, Pamela Willeford, another Bush Family crony, was also along for the festivities. The revelation by the Cox News Service, has yet to be picked up by any publication. As reported by RAW...

Pamela Willeford, a former Texas education official, accompanied Cheney and Whittington as they hunted quail at the Armstrong ranch in Texas on Saturday.
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According to Open Secrets, "Willeford and her immediate family contributed a total of $23,200 to Republicans during the 2000, 2002 and 2004 election cycles, including $7,000 to the Bush campaigns and an additional $500 to the Bush-Cheney recount fund established after the 2000 election."

No explanation yet, for the lack of coverage of the Willeford story, despite a couple of lede grafs which seem to us to be too good not to print!...

Just before sunset Saturday, 78-year-old Harry Whittington pulled off "a double" --- bringing down two quails with two successive blasts from his shotgun.

One of Whittington's hunting companions, Vice President Dick Cheney, wasn't as accurate.

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