Hunting for Camaraderie With Shotguns and Friends
Companions Say Pastime Gives Cheney a Timeout
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 19, 2006; A07
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While Cheney pays any hunting fees or lodging expenses if charged, taxpayers invariably pick up much of the cost of Cheney's hunting hobby. As with his predecessors, the government pays for Secret Service agents, military aides and the rest of the entourage that travels with vice presidents wherever they go, as well as the expense of Air Force Two. But it is not clear how much that costs. The budget lists $1 million for the vice president's annual travel, including his official duties, but the figure is rounded to the nearest million, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
On a typical two-day hunting trip, as described by companions, Cheney rises as early as 4:30 a.m. and receives his morning national security briefing before heading to breakfast or sometimes a pre-breakfast hunt. While he and his partners often ride horses, a dog master supervises the pointers or other hunting dogs that track down the quail or other birds. Once a dog smells one, he stops flat in his tracks. Watching the dogs, some Cheney associates say, is as much fun as the shooting.
"You get quite a thrill," said former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), a Cheney friend and hunting partner. "Sometimes you don't even shoot. It's just amazing. There's a lot to it. It's not romantic for me, but it's very satisfying. Not the killing. Sometimes I don't get a thing. Just the joshing, the talking, the outrageous babble you have out there."
Cheney naturally favors some of the country's most exclusive and remote hunting ranges, such as the Armstrong Ranch, the 50,000-acre private spread in south Texas where he wounded Whittington, or places such as the Paul Nelson Farm in South Dakota, where the owners boast of a separate gun cleaning room with four cleaning stations furnished with compressed air and individual boot dryers.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021801147_pf.html