Vice President Dick Cheney takes full responsibility for hunting accident.

But according to a story by The Associated Press that moved minutes ago, Cheney defended his decision not to talk about last Saturday's hunting accident that left 78-year-old Austin lawyer Harry Whittington hospitalized with pellet wounds, then a pellet-caused heart attack, until the following day.

Today at 4 p.m. MST, Cheney will talk about the circumstances of  the accident in an interview with Fox News reporter Brit Hume. (That's Comcast cable channel 34 for you stay-at-home news junkies).

Apparently Cheney will tell Hume he had one beer at lunch several hours before the shooting incident, according to a story on the Editor & Publisher Web site, addressing at least one of the more scurrilous rumors making the rounds of left-wing talk shows and blogs.

Meanwhile, Whittington was reported to be recovering from a heartbeat irregularity and is even doing some legal work at his hospital's intensive care unit, the Dallas Morning News is reporting today on its Web site.

Hume will definitely be a less hostile interviewer than, say, Helen Thomas or Chris Matthews, but it should give the veep an opportunity to deal with some of the troubling questions arising from the incident. Editor & Publisher online has a list of questions that increasingly curious reporters would like to ask.

Cheney has left White House spokesman Scott McClellan to deal with an increasingly angry press corps, the left-wing talk shows and blogosphere have been floating some feverishly scandalous rumors, and even certified conservatives like former press secretaries Marlin Fitzwater and Ari Fleisher, not to mention the National Review Online gang, have chided the vice president for what is turning into a PR meltdown.

One question we'd like to see Hume ask Cheney is why Kenedy County sheriff's deputies didn't interview the vice president or other hunters present on the day of the shooting.

Kenedy County lawmen on Monday declared the shooting accidental, but didn't question anyone involved for at least 14 hours after the incident, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday on its Web site (registration required).

Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III said he talked to employees at the Armstrong Ranch where the shooting took place and was assured that it was an accident, the Morning News reported.

Another ranch employee told the Morning News that Secret Service agents told the sheriff within an hour of the incident that the shooting was an accident and that the sheriff took them at their word.

Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens also filed a report on the incident but relied mainly on the ranch's owner and Cheney's host, Karen Armstrong, who described the incident. A copy of the Parks and Wildlife report can be found here, thanks to the indispensable Web site, The Smoking Gun.

And we couldn't resist leaving you with this tongue-in-cheek take on the whole affair by the always-amusing ScrappleFace.

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