Cheney hunts down pheasants with an ambulance in tow

U.S.Vice President Dick Cheney went out hunting for pheasants in Dutchess County on Monday, but since he is a heart patient, he was trailed by an ambu lance embedded in a 15-SUV entourage.

New York, Oct.30 : U.S.Vice President Dick Cheney went out hunting for pheasants in Dutchess County on Monday, but since he is a heart patient, he was trailed by an ambu lance embedded in a 15-SUV entourage.

Cheney, according to the New York Post, attracted controversy by visiting the exclusive Clove Valley Rod and 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 attached to the club headquarters.

The Stars and Bars were clearly visible 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 apologize for going to a club that represents lynching, hate and murder to black people," the Reverend. 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, particularly blacks," Sharpton added.

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

And for most in this small town of 4,500, the visit was barely noteworthy.

"There really wasn't that much hoopla," said Town Supervisor Lisette Hitsman.

"When all of a sudden you have a bunch of white SUVs, then some black SUVs, then a whole lot of men with dark glasses, we knew it was Dick Cheney," Hitsman said.

She noted the town's all-volunteer fire and rescue company was at-the-ready.

Cheney spent about six hours hunting, enjoying near-perfect temperatures in the 50s. He was gone by 3:45 p.m.

Cheney became a punch line in 2006 after he sprayed a hunting companion, lawyer Harry Whittington, in Texas.

The vice president came under fire for not going public with the incident for four days.

Cheney called the mishap "one of the worst days" of his life. But Whittington graciously forgave his pal, and chided the media for being so hard on the veep.

ANI