Question About Cheney's Quail-Hunting Accident

Why was Mr. Cheney hunting a former Vice President in the first place? (I know that it's Q-u-a-y-l-e. But you know how many variant spellings there are. You know, like potato[e].)

In comments here, Pooh quoted that master hunter, Elmer Fudd, who said, "Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits."

Pooh also linked to this post in which it's suggested that Mr. Cheney was emulating a former Vice President, Aaron Burr, who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.

Fortunately, it's possible to laugh a little bit about this incident because Harry Whittington, the accidental victim, will recover.

[For some reason though, I keep remembering History of the World, Part 1, in which Mel Brooks plays King Louis XVI. Told that the peasants were revolting in one scene, Brooks' Louis responds, "You're not kidding. They stink on ice." But when told that the people were alienated from their monarch, Brooks' Louis seems to be hurt. "They are my people. I am their king," he says, explaining their mystical connection. This happens while Louis is out shooting clay pigeons. After making this speech, he yells, "Pull!" Instead of a clay pigeon though, a peasant is catapulted into the air and Louis fires away. Does Dick Cheney, by any chance, think that lawyers stink on ice? Just wondering.]