Rev. Al Gets His Noose in a Knot Over Cheney's Hunting Trip

Vice President Dick Cheney did a little pheasant hunting in upstate New York, and the presence of a the Stars and Bars at the hunt club has Al Sharpton on a rant:

October 30, 2007 -- Dick Cheney went a- hunting for pheasant in Dutchess County yester day, trailed by an ambulance embedded in a 15-SUV entourage in case the vice president's ticker - or trigger finger - went awry.

But the veep only shot him self in the foot - by visiting the exclusive Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club in Union Vale, a sprawling preserve nestled along the western side of Clove Mountain, where a 5-foot-by-5-foot Confederate flag hung in a garage at tached to the club headquarters.

The Stars and Bars were clearly vis ible from the open-doored garage; there were no signs of the Stars and Stripes elsewhere.

"I am calling on Vice President Cheney to . . . denounce the club and apol ogize for going to a club that repre sents lynching, hate and murder to black people," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement.

"In this age of Jena and hangmen nooses all over the country, for the vice president to relax under the flag of the hangmen nooses is an unpardonable insult to all Americans, par ticularly blacks."

A Cheney spokesman said the vice president never saw the flag.

There sure is a lot of opinion (not to mention snark) in what is supposed to be a news item. While the author may think that Cheney cares what he or Al Sharpton thinks, I can guarantee you that he doesn't, and whether he saw the rebel flag or not, it wasn't going to stop his hunting trip. Cheney's not running for anything, so neither Sharpton nor the press' opinion means a whole lot to him.