on the cheney shooting: I heard from a source in the national intelligence community that Cheney was in fact angry at something Harry Whittington, his hunting companion, had said, and that is why he shot him. Alcohol may have been a factor, despite the denials.

We'll probably never have the truth. White House actually made the victim get out there and apologize.

"My family and I are deeply sorry for all Vice President Cheney and his family had to go through this past week."

this from the guy who had buckshot lodged next to his heart and suffered a mild heart attack.

I think there is a big potential for ridiculous photo-ops with hunting politicians (see (link...)).

However, it is a problem that there is a large population of hunters that the Democrats have effectively ceded to the Republicans. The Democrats could pick up a lot of votes, or at least cut a lot of opposition off at the pass, if they would do some very moderate things: (1) declare that they would not support increased regulation of normal hunting weapons (shotguns and deer rifles) under any circumstances, (2) emphasize that Democrats want to save environment not only for future generations, but for today's sportsmen, and (3) recognizing that hunting and fishing are important traditions and pasttimes for many people.

Democrats also should be careful about using terms that they don't understand. For example, without trying to be too critical of rocketsquirrel, the Cheney incident involved #7.5 birdshot, not buckshot. There is a big difference.