Romney Redux
With apologies to John Updike for the subtitle, but you gotta admit the pun is funny. (Or maybe the better metaphor is
Alice in Wonderland? --watch below for the "jack rabbit exception," as Mitt runs down the hole and away from the game wardens.)
1.Jan. 10, 2007 : “The Glenn and Helen Show” podcast. “I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I’m a member of the NRA and believe firmly in the right to bear arms.” Start listening at minute 12 in the audio file:
http://drhelen.blogspot.com/2007/01/podcast-with-mitt-romney.html
2. Feb. 18, 2007: ABC News “This Week”
http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/story?id=2885156&page=2
“I’ve been a hunter all my life, not frequently, but as a boy, when I worked on a ranch in Idaho, we used to go out shooting rabbits, because they were eating all the barley, and I got pretty good with a single shot .22 rifle, and been quail hunting more recently.
“So I’m a hunter and believe in Second Amendment rights, but I also believe that assault weapons are not needed in the public population.”
3. April 3, 2007: Keene, NH, campaign appearance, to a guy wearing an NRA cap who asked about gun control: "I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life."
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5592560?source=rss
4. April 4, 2007: AP story: "Yet the former Massachusetts governor's hunting experience is limited to two trips at the bookends of his 60 years: as a 15-year-old, when he hunted rabbits with his cousins on a ranch in Idaho, and last year, when he shot quail on a fenced game preserve in Georgia. Last year's trip was an outing with major donors to the Republican Governors Association, which Romney headed at the time. An aide said Wednesday that Romney was not trying to mislead anyone, although he confirmed Romney had been hunting only on those occasions in his life . . . . Romney added: "Shooting a rabbit with a single-shot .22 is pretty hard, and after watching me try for a couple of weeks, (my cousins) said, 'We'll slip you the semiautomatic. You'll do better with that.' And I sure did.""
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5592560?source=rss
5. April 5, 2007: Indianapolis news conference: ”I’m not a big-game hunter. I’ve made that very clear,” he said. ”I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times.”
http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=193266
6. April 6, 2007: AP story: "Officials in the four states where Mitt Romney has lived say the Republican presidential contender, who calls himself a lifelong hunter, never took out a license. Romney says that's because he has seldom hunted where he needed one.
"Questions about his hunting activities trailed Romney this week after he remarked at a campaign stop that he has been a hunter nearly all his life. The next day, his campaign said Romney had been hunting only twice, once as a teenager in Idaho and again last year with GOP donors in Georgia.
"That was wrong, Romney said the day after that, adding that he had hunted rabbits and other small animals for many years, mainly in Utah. Hunting certain small game there doesn't require a license.
'The report that I only hunted twice is incorrect,' Romney said in a statement issued Friday. 'I've hunted small game numerous times, as a young man and as an adult. I'm by no means a big game hunter. I'm more Jed Clampett than Teddy Roosevelt.'
"His staff refused Friday to provide details about his hunting history, including whose gun he used, with whom he hunted and whether he hunted in Utah as a college student or as an adult. He does not own a firearm, despite claiming to earlier this year.
"The former Massachusetts governor issued the statement Friday after The Associated Press asked wildlife officials in Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Utah for any documentation verifying Romney had been a registered hunter.
"Officials from Michigan, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where a license is necessary to hunt such small game, said they could not immediately locate any license for Romney. An official in Utah said a change in state law last year blocked public access to license records.
"Of the four states, Utah has the most liberal hunting regulations for small game. Jack rabbits can be hunted without a license and killed without limit, but cottontail rabbits and snowshoe hares require a license."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/ROMNEY_HUNTING?SITE=VTBRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT.
In other words, apparently it depends on what your definition of "rabbit" is . . .