Was Cheney Hunting RINO?

I see that the effervescent Texan, Molly Ivins, has weighed in on the VP shooting incident. She gives us an idea of what kind of republican Harry Whittington is:

Not that I accuse Harry Whittington of being an actual liberal — only by Texas Republican standards, and that sets the bar about the height of a matchbook. Nevertheless, Whittington is seriously civilized, particularly on the issues of crime, punishment and prisons. He served on both the Texas Board of Corrections and on the bonding authority that builds prisons. As he has often said, prisons do not curb crime, they are hothouses for crime: "Prisons are to crime what greenhouses are to plants."

In the day, whenever there was an especially bad case of new-ignoramus-in-the-legislature — a "lock 'em all up and throw away the key" type — the senior members used to send the prison-happy, tuff-on-crime neophyte to see Harry Whittington, a Republican after all, for a little basic education on the cost of prisons.

When Whittington was the chairman of Texas Public Finance Authority, he had a devastating set of numbers on the demand for more, more, more prison beds. As Whittington was wont to point out, the only thing prisons are good for is segregating violent people from the rest of society, and most of them belong in psychiatric hospitals to begin with. The severity of sentences has no effect on crime. (go read the rest)

Now I'm not suggesting that Cheney shot the man (in the face) because he was (take your pick) a soft-on-crime type, or that he was a lawyer, or that it would reduce the hunting party to a VP and two women-who were-not-their-wives, although the Ambassador to Switzerland reminds me of a much younger Lynne Cheney.

I just noticed a few things missing from all the coverage and few questions that need to be answered to give a complete and satisfactory answer to any lingering doubts about the the VP's judgement in this unfortunate affair. For instance:

-Did Cheney actually bag any quail when he turned and shot? Or did Dick pull up short yet still release his load?
-Did they plan on eating quail for supper and is using 7 1/2 shot conducive to avoiding a dentist after eating a small "peppered" game bird like quail?
-Was Whittington cogent and talking when he was loaded him on the gurney? Did they fear he wasn't going to make it?
-We know that Bush has Saddam's pistol, is there any chance that Cheney has Saddam's shotgun?

Much has been made about the delay in notifying (take your pick) the President, the White House Press Corps, the next of kin.

I must admit my first thought was that if Whittington died they'd stratergerize who would be to blame. As it was, they just blamed the victim for getting the line of fire. Why not just blame the few damn rogue birds? It's worked before.

But Andy Card and Karl Rove seem to be the first notified and they came up with a different plan which we are now seeing.

Though, I don't see how they are going to turn the Elmer Fudd meme around into a boost for the VP's falling poll numbers...