Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Dick Cheney, facing criticism over how he handled the disclosure of a weekend hunting accident, is scheduled to make his first public comments about the incident today in a television interview.

Cheney plans to give the interview to the Fox News cable channel at 2 p.m. for broadcast at 6 p.m. Washington time, Jenny Mayfield, a spokeswoman for the vice president, told reporters.

The man wounded by Cheney during the Feb. 11 hunt in south Texas, 78-year-old lawyer and Republican Party backer Harry Whittington, suffered a ``minor'' heart attack yesterday after a shotgun pellet shifted and lodged in his heart muscle, doctors at a Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital said yesterday.

The accidental shooting was not publicly disclosed until the next day when Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the 50,000- acre ranch where Cheney and Whittington were hunting, called a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper. Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride confirmed the account when asked, while giving no other details.

In past accidents involving President George W. Bush, such as his bicycle crash in Scotland last year, the White House press office issued a statement soon afterward.

``Had this been handled expeditiously, quickly, it might have been a story on the style page, or limited to the late night comedians and the cartoonists,'' said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ``There's simply no question they fumbled this one.''

White House spokesman Scott McClellan also suggested that the delay had not served the White House well.

`Legitimate Questions'

``There were some very legitimate questions that were asked'' about the delay, McClellan said yesterday. ``I always believe that you can look back and work to do better.''

Still, McClellan didn't address Whittington's medical condition at his daily briefing for reporters, even though he said afterward that he was aware of the change in his status just before the noon event.

Cheney's office put out its first formal statement directly addressing the shooting yesterday. It said the vice president watched the hospital news conference and called Whittington afterward. Cheney has made no public comment on the matter. Senior White House officials have pressed the vice president to publicly address the issue, the Washington Post reported today, citing unnamed Republicans.

Democrats Seize Issue

Democrats seized on the incident as an example of what they said was the administration's refusal to keep the public informed.

``I believe the vice president should hold a press conference to talk about the incident,'' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid told reporters today after a breakfast meeting of congressional leaders with Bush. ``He hasn't had a press conference in about three and one-half years.''

Reid, of Nevada, said Cheney was at the breakfast but did not say anything. Reid yesterday called the Bush White House ``the most secretive administration in modern history.''

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who also attended, said ``open government would demand that the vice president come clean on what happened'' in Texas.

Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who has hunted with Cheney, said the vice president did nothing wrong.

``I'm not sure it's his obligation to go to the press and say `Guess what? This happened,''' Cornyn said.

`Specific Plan'

Other Republicans joined the criticism. Former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, who worked for former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, told the trade publication Editor & Publisher he was ``appalled by the whole handling of this.''

The White House has ``a very specific plan'' for informing the public of such incidents, Fitzwater said. ``It is beyond me'' why the information wasn't distributed shortly after the shooting, Fitzwater told E&P.

The furor over the delayed disclosure had begun to die down by yesterday morning. Even McClellan made light of the matter before the change in Whittington's condition was revealed. He joked that the orange clothing worn by members of University of Texas football team during a White House appearance was the school color and they weren't wearing it ``because they're concerned that the vice president may be there.''

One of the vice president's previous hunting companions, Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, said he teased Cheney, 65, about the episode at the start of an intelligence briefing yesterday morning at the Capitol.

Lott said he kept his joking ``pretty brief and pretty light'' because Cheney ``didn't look like he was having a whole lot of fun with it.''

Hospital Announcement

Then officials at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, where Whittington is being treated, held a televised news conference to announce the Austin lawyer's condition had worsened.

Whittington underwent a procedure in which a thin tube was threaded through his arteries to check for any damage or blockage to his heart at about 9 a.m. local time. That took place after monitors detected an irregular heartbeat. He was in stable condition and talking to doctors after the procedure, hospital administrator Peter Banko said. He will remain in the hospital for as long as seven days.

``We're watching closely for any migration'' of the pellets, Blanchard said at the televised news conference. The birdshot pellet -- about a 10th of an inch in diameter -- caused ``irritability in the muscle of the heart,'' he said. ``When the muscle of the heart is irritated, it does some quivering.''

Pellet

Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said it's possible for the pellet to remain in Whittington's heart muscle safely and not pose a risk for another heart attack.

``What will likely happen here is that the damaged areas of the heart will heal over in the typical fashion,'' Cannon said. ``The cause is different than a typical heart attack, but the end result of damage to the heart muscle is the same.''

According to the account of ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, Whittington was hit by shotgun pellets in the face and chest from about 30 yards away as Cheney turned to shoot a bird that had just been flushed from the underbrush.

Armstrong said Whittington didn't alert the vice president and the other hunters that he was approaching after having stopped to retrieve a quail he had shot.

Case Closed

For Texas authorities the case is closed for now.

The Kenedy County Sheriffs Department concluded ``this was nothing more than a hunting accident.'' The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department gave Cheney and Whittington warnings because they didn't have a $7 stamp for game birds on their hunting licenses, a new requirement.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, a significant portion of the 30 hunting accidents in the state last year occurred as a hunter was turning to fire at game.

``It's a classic example of what causes a hunting accident in Texas,'' said Tom Harvey, a department spokesman.

Tito Killian, owner of Outdoor Accents Quail Farm in Devine, Texas, said it's not uncommon for hunters to get peppered with shotgun pellets. Still, basic safety precautions hold that you don't walk behind a shooter, he said.

``It's kind of like playing baseball,'' Killian said. ``You've got to know where everybody is.''

In most cases that don't involve a fatality, Killian said it's not customary to even notify the sheriff's department.

``It was an accident, OK?'' Killian said. ``Let's get real here.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Dodge in Washington at Cdodge1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 15, 2006 12:36 EST