The hunting accident in which Vice President Dick Cheney shot a fellow hunter in the face, neck and chest had become the butt of endless late-night-television jokes since the story broke on Sunday. But when the 78-year-old victim, Texas lawyer Harry Whittington, suffered a minor heart attack early Tuesday caused by birdshot lodged in his heart, the situation took on a renewed urgency, and once again pointed out the glaring disconnect between the White House and the secretive vice president.

The White House had already been heavily criticized by the press for its handling of the incident, news of which did not leak until nearly 24 hours after it happened on Saturday afternoon. Following reports of Whittington's turn for the worse, Republicans joined the chorus of those asking the notoriously taciturn and close-lipped Cheney to make an official comment on the incident.

According to The New York Times, Whittington was moved back into the intensive care unit at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday after doctors became concerned about irregularities in his heartbeat. He is to be monitored for up to a week in case the birdshot lodged in his heart shifts or additional pellets in his body move into other organs.

Emergency room chief Dr. David Blanchard estimated that Whittington had more than five but "probably less than 150 to 200" pellets lodged in his body. The hospital's cardiologists didn't expect the pellet to travel any further into Whittington's heart, and they had no plans to remove it.

Cheney's office finally released its first statement on the incident midday Tuesday, after news of Whittington's heart attack broke. The statement said that the vice president's "thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family" and that Cheney had spoken by telephone to Whittington earlier in the day, according to the Times. "The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed. The vice president said that he stood ready to assist."

Whittington accompanied Cheney on the hunting excursion, in which the men drove to an area where captive quail were released for them to shoot. According to official accounts, Whittington was behind Cheney when the vice president turned to take aim at a bird and accidentally shot the lawyer in the face, neck and chest. Cheney's medical team assisted Whittington on site before he was transferred to a local hospital. President Bush was informed of the shooting Saturday evening, but news of the incident didn't become public until Sunday afternoon when ranch owner and Republican party supporter Katharine Armstrong called the local newspaper. The White House didn't report the incident to the national media, which learned about it from a report on the Corpus Christi Caller-Times' Web site.

The failure to immediately disclose the shooting drew a harsh response from the White House press corps, who hammered White House press secretary Scott McClellan for a second day on Tuesday. McClellan, who joked that he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Cheney, attempted to brush off the incident with the kind of humor employed by Jon Stewart on Monday night's episode of "The Daily Show," during which reporters repeatedly used the phrase "shot in the face by the vice president."

According to The New York Times, the turn in Whittington's condition created another snafu in the already embarrassing story. Though Cheney's office was informed of Whittington undergoing a cardiac catheterization on his heart at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, no one had informed McClellan, who said he would have never joked about the shooting accident if he had known about Whittington's surgery. Insiders said the secrecy from Cheney's end is in keeping with his clandestine nature, heightened by the understanding that he will never run for another public office and does not have to answer to voters.

Though Cheney had the correct Texas non-resident season hunting license, he didn't have the $7 stamp required for hunting upland game birds and faces a warning over that omission. Local officials said at first they did not intend to bring any charges in the shooting, which was considered an accident, but according to The New York Times, the district attorney in Kleberg County, Carlos Valdez, said a fatality would invite a new report from the local sheriff and, most likely, a grand jury investigation. Under the law, even an accidental hunting death can result in criminal charges, and Cheney could be charged with negligence should Whittington die as a result of his injuries.

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