VP Cheney does what Ted Kennedy Never Did

Yahoo! News

Vice President Dick Cheney took the blame on Wednesday for accidentally shooting a friend while hunting quail and called it "one of the worst days of my life."

"The image of him falling is something that I'll never be able to get out of my mind. I fired and there's Harry falling. and it was ... one of the worst days of my life," Cheney said.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the Texas ranch and who disclosed the shooting to a Texas newspaper, faulted Whittington for not announcing his presence before getting sprayed with birdshot.

Cheney said he was to blame.

"You can talk about all of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that's the bottom line. And it's not Harry's fault. You can't blame anybody else," Cheney said. "Ultimately, I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

Cheney came under fire from both Republicans and Democrats alike for not getting the incident out to the public for 18 hours, adding to the perception that the vice president has a secretive nature.

But Cheney unapologetically stuck to his decision to not release the information until the next day, when Armstrong told a Corpus Christi, Texas, newspaper.

"I thought that was the right call. I still do," Cheney said.