Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Were local cops guarding Cheney?
Jamie Powell, reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times who got the scoop on the Cheney hunting party shooting, was interviewed on Online NewsHour yesterday:
JAIME POWELL: Katharine Armstrong, one of the ranch's owners, called my cell phone yesterday morning, and did not reach me immediately, finally got in touch with me late morning and explained the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
RAY SUAREZ: How is it that Katharine Armstrong would come to have your number and think of you first to call?
JAIME POWELL: Katharine is the daughter of Tobin and Anne Armstrong, influential ranchers, Republicans. I had a very good relationship, working relationship with her father. And the relationship has continued with the children.
Excerpts to a cache link to an earlier Powell story based on a scoop she received in January of 2004 about an earlier Cheney hunting party at the Anderson Ranch, that included George Bush Sr. (perhaps the 'relationship' led to at least two good scoops):
Vice President Dick Cheney, former president George Bush Sr. and U.S. special envoy James A. Baker III have been bird hunting this weekend at a ranch in Kenedy County, according to some area officials.
Kenedy County rancher Tobin Armstrong and his wife, Anne Armstrong, the former ambassador to Great Britain, are hosting the men. Area hunters and ranchers said quail have been especially plump and plentiful.
....The high-powered guests have been sheltered from the media, but it is believed that they are at a hunting camp about 10 miles into the 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch.
....Less than three weeks ago, President Bush spent a short time hunting for quail in the same area. The president reportedly spent this weekend gearing up for his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
....Cheney is known to hunt birds several times a year at the Armstrong Ranch.
But it's another Powell article published on November 12, 2004 that is responsible for the title to this post:
As a self-described country boy growing up in Odem, Bee County Sheriff Robert Horn never guessed his 40-year law enforcement career would have him rubbing elbows with the president one day and chasing bank robbers the next.
Horn, 63, who is hanging up his badge after 28 years as sheriff, said he will never forget the days when Air Force One landed at Chase Field and he and his deputies played a part in protecting George Bush Sr. on his hunting trips.
"As a country boy, I was always wondering what it would be like to meet the president," Horn said.
"Bush coming here hunting and being part of the security around him will always be in the front of my mind as a memorable moment."
Bee County and Sutton County (where the Anderson Ranch is) are kind of far from each other...but if Bush Sr. had local police providing security at his hunting trips...it seems very probable that Cheney did too.
So why haven't we heard from any of them?
(Just want to add that the last part of this post is obviously speculation.)
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