Bush hunts for photo op; kills protected species

[Viking12]

Next time someone starts bashing Kerry for his hunting trip yesterday, throw this back in their face...

Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
September 04, 1994
Mike Kelley

Now, this is what can happen when you suddenly decide to shout, "Hey,
everybody look at me! Look at me!"


Both Ann Richards and George W. Bush made a big deal of going hunting
on the opening day of dove season last week. Both camps acknowledged that it was done for image. Texans like hunting, the reasoning went, so it would be a good thing to go hunting and take a passel of reporters and photographers along.

As it turned out, Richards didn't get any birds because nobody saw any. Everybody who has ever gone hunting and come back with an empty bag, or gone fishing and not made a catch, can understand this. So she fired off her shotgun for the benefit of the attending hoards and called it a day.

Bush, on the other hand, illegally shot a killdee, a bird that is not a dove. He was fined $130 for this. "I was mistaken," said Bush. "What I thought was a dove was a killdeer."

Hardly anyone would fault Bush for this except for the fact that before the hunt, one of his people had emphasized that "hunting is something he's done all of his life. This is a useful image for us in that it points out a part of his life. . . . He's a true outdoorsman." All right. He's a true outdoorsman who cannot tell a dove from a not-a-dove.

Please pass it along
The incident was also covered by the Houston Chronicle and other Texas newspapers -- (Lexis-Nexis is a wonderful resource).

[Catfight]

1. Is this true? I'm surprised Rove didn't spin it into, it wasn't a dove,

it was a deer!LOL Bush has the Worst judgment and forth sight. What a complete idiot. I bet he wouldn't even say THAT was a mistake! And he'd say, "If I had to do it again, I'd shoot that DOVE again!" In fact, the DOVE is a religious bird, you'd think he's followers would be pissed!

[lectrobyte]

2. not a deer, a killdeer. Didn't realize they were protected.

Going out and shooting some endangered species, that doesn't surprise me a bit. I can see how someone might get bird species mixed up, but I don't get the whole dove hunting thing to start with.

[rkc3]

13. The two look nothing alike - especially in flight.

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes in the woods knows the difference. My six year old knows the difference.

[lectrobyte]

16. Sorry, I am not a bird hunter, or even much of a bird watcher.

So I assumed it might be easy to get the wrong kind of bird, if they are close in size.

Love the irony. That's Bush, botching photo ops even back then. If you can't even fake the fakery without faking it up, ah, never mind, we've seen this carrier-landing plastic turkey stuntery enough to know how it "works."

[Viking12]

3. 100% True.

[bif]

4. Got a link?

[Viking12]

8. The article is from Lexis-Nexis database

Subscription only:

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=1de19c9587d1d4a1de741e12e038ef4a&_docnum=139&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkVA&_md5=dd0ba05905ad08cc63866732a3d20c92

[lectrobyte]

9. Google News is your friend

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=bush+killdeer

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/9790649.htm?1c

You have to be careful about these photo opportunities. Bush took the press dove-hunting with him before his 1994 election as Texas governor and proved to be an accurate shot. Unfortunately, he brought down a federally protected killdeer rather than a dove and had to pay the fine.

[Mabus]

11. Found a picture

because the date of the article is 94 it is unlikely to be on-line. Most newspapers didn't start on-line editions until the late 90's.

I did find a picture of Bush with the dead killdee though at http://www.angelfire.com/co3/gwosama2/

?m=1&pg=0&pw=*578638DCEF6A

Perhaps someone with more know-how can post the picture here.

[lectrobyte]

18. All I do is paste the URL of a pic into the body of a post and

some magic seems to happen in the DU Server to render it:

[life_long_dem]

5. I read your subject line about "kills protected species"

my first thought was kills the "human" species.

[debatepro]

6. nice find

someones using lexis nexus.

[trailrunners]

7. Who is Bashing Kerry for Hunting?

A Killdeer doesn't look ANYTHING like a dove - especially when it's flying. What a f***ing idiot! I suppose the moron * was just shooting anything that flew...you know it might be hard to tell what it was though, with the silver spoon in his mouth. The dickhead probably never hunted a day in his life because he wanted to.....just photo ops.

By the way, who is bashing Kerry for hunting? And.....Why???

[Viking12]

12. Cheney and Chimpy have both ripped Kerry

as being an opportunist, a phoney, blah, blah, blah

[Catfight]

15. They are so obvious now, whatever they accuse Kerry/Edwards of

they are blatantly guilty. This is like a 3rd grader mentality. "Look at what Jimmy is doing mom!" We need REAL leadership, not this crackpot crap we're handed. I honestly cannot respect any Bush/Cheney supporter, they are pure ignorant to me.

[NicRic]

10. Humans ,to only ones that kill for fun !

I remember when I was about 12 years old a Uncle of mine took me Deer hunting. That was the frist and the last time ,sorry just dont get it ,I dont get any enjoyment out of seeing an inocent animal die ! Now it is true that sometimes these Deer will starve to death thru the winter ,so many justify it with those facts. I believe the need to kill for survival is understandable ,however killing for sport just isnt my idea of a good time !

[Pirate Smile]

14. I've seen the video footage of this once. He looked like a complete

idiot who everyone should have been afraid of when he had a gun.

I wish we could find it again. Someone posted it here on DU and I think it was from CBS.

[SeanQ]

17. All hat...

[theHandpuppet]

19. Here's a good pic of a Kildeer

http://www.kildeer.district96.k12.il.us/kildeerBird/KildeerBird.html

Doesn't even resemble a dove. Yeah, a regular he-man hunter, our Dumbya. What an idiot!