aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Cheney hunting: costume of choice this year

If it wasn’t before, it will be now:

Vice President Dick Cheney is embroiled in yet another hunting-related controversy.

The vice president made a daylong hunting trip on Monday to the Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club, an exclusive mountainside establishment on 4,000 acres in Union Vale, N.Y., about 15 miles east of Poughkeepsie, in Dutchess County. Only members and their guests may hunt on the property; an annual membership is said to cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Reporters who covered Mr. Cheney’s visit on Monday — including Fernanda Santos of The Times — were not permitted to enter the grounds of the hunting estate. But at least one eagle-eyed photographer captured images of a Confederate battle flag — about 3 feet by 5 feet in dimension — hanging in plain view in a garage attached to the club’s headquarters. The Daily News captured images of the flag. The New York Post stoked the controversy today with the headline: “V.P.’s Hunting Gear: Dead-Eye Dick Cheney in Dixie-Flag Flap.”