(Ark. Sen.)Pryor Makes Kerry Nod Official..Invites for Hunting Trip

[DeepModem Mom]

Publication:Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Date: 27 June 2004 ; Section:Front Section; Page:15

Pryor makes Kerry nod official
Senator invites Democratic hopeful to visit state for hunting trip

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE


WASHINGTON — Consider the invitation semiofficial: Sen. Mark Pryor would love to see Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry travel to Arkansas to do a little hunting.

It would be just the thing for Kerry to show folks that he is a regular guy on key Southern issues, Pryor said. "I know a lot of people that would love to host him."

"Some people think that because he grew up in Massachusetts he must be anti-gun, but that’s not so," Pryor said.

While Kerry considers the invitation, Pryor is making official his "endorsement" of the senator from Massachusetts. The state congressional delegation’s other four Democrats already have endorsed Kerry....


http://epaper.ardemgaz.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=ArDemocrat/2004/06/27&ID=Ar01503

[Pepperbelly]

1. Kerry should do it ...

It would be an opportunity to grind his thumb into Bush's eye at a very opportune time.

[Gman]

4. BTW...

Tom Joad is everywhere there's injustice.

[Claire Beth]

2. I called the Kerry campaign months ago....

and sent emails saying the same thing....I completely agree.

[Gman]

3. Ann Richards went on a dove hunting trip

in her first race for guv. The trip put her in a totally different light with the gun crowd. It couldn't hurt as long as Kerry doesn't go out there and not have a clue how to handle a gun. Then it could backfire.

[Racenut20]

5. Perhaps Justice Scalia could come along and coach him.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Clever!

[TacticalPeek]

13. "not have a clue how to handle a gun"

Google Kerry's action for which he received the Silver Star.

[Dover]

7. It's becoming known as the obligatory hunting photo-op

Put a gun in the hands of a politician and the NRA loyalists MIGHT give you their endorsement.

Never mind that the sport of hunting is fading into the sunset.

[Pepperbelly]

8. not here it isn't ...

not even close.

[DenaliDemocrat]

9. Hey Guys

I live in Alaska, and before that rural Colorado, and I can assure you that hunting is NOT fading into the sunset in those states. Up here in Alaska, a lot of people depend on fishing and hunting for their food...they even call it subsistence harvest.

Anyway, just a note. The Izaac Walton League refuses to endorse Bush because of his poor record on the environment. A know a ton of hunters (and these are good hunters, not those yahoos you see wacking a deer over a corn feeder in Texas on tv), and not a one of them are for Bush.

As hunters and wildlife enthusiasts, we WANT more land protected for EVERYONE to use. Of course, we get a little bent when land we paid for with Pittman Robertson funds get closed off to hunting -- but suffice to say we are pretty upset about how Bush has handled our environment.

As a side note, I will NOT support the NRA, and I know a lot of hunters who will not because the NRA has gone off the deep end. To believe that there should be no gun control ever in this country is pretty ridiculous, and a position that most hunters I know do not agree with. Personally, I send my money to Ducks Unlimited, the Alaska Moose Federation, and the Rocky Mountian Elk Foundation. All good organizations that promote habitat protection AND purchase new lands to set aside for wildlife.

Still, let me give the caveat and state that the guys I hunt with are all very serious about our sport. Safety first, we train for months to be phsyically able to hunt, and we value the experience above all else. Its about HUNTING not killing in the crowd I run with. The true "gun crowd" guys who are more into shooting but not necessarily hunting addicts seemt have different views than this.


Still, if Kerry would come out and endorse hunting responsibly, and promote the outdoors and habitat restoration and protection...he would draw a big number of hunters.

[napi21]

10. Good point on NRA support!

My husband bought a lifetime membership about 30 years ago, and he was an avid supporter. No more! They really have gone off the deep end with their slippery slope stance.

He still reads the magazine that comes every month, but that's it.

I don't know that hunting & fishing is diminishing. Maybe in some areas, but not anywhere we've lived. I think it's just support for the NRA that is falling fast.

[shrike]

11. Good to know there are still some real hunters around

My husband has hunted for years and he has curtailed his participation because of all the jerks out there -- like the ones who take "sound" shots.

[MaineDem]

14. I believe he already has

"Still, if Kerry would come out and endorse hunting responsibly, and promote the outdoors and habitat restoration and protection...he would draw a big number of hunters."

Kerry is a hunter and an environmentalist.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Thanks for your post, Ihwbt, and welcome to DU!

[Dover]

16. I just read the other day that the NRA is concerned that fewer and fewer

people are taking up hunting as a sport, and they are blaming that, in part, on existing laws that make it difficult to purchase guns and to hunt.

I read articles to that effect before...that fewer young people are sharing an interest in hunting.

[DenaliDemocrat]

18. NRA

The NRA does not care about hunting. Hunting as a sport can wither and die as far as the NRA is concerned. All they care about are gun rights. The NRA is no longer a respectable organization in my mind. They have become "ideological" and no longer use common sense. They would fight for your right to own an RPG if they could.

I let my membership expire a few years ago, and will not join again.

[MarkTwain]

12. Just Peachy.... Pop Bambi between....

...the eyes for an electoral vote or two! Right out of the "kill a Commie for Christ" playbook, in my opinion.

Maybe, just maybe, the nominee will have more sense, more class, and will have evolved intellectually, emotionally, and philosophically further than those predicating their votes upon participation is such barbaric "sport" much less those knuckle-draggers that practice it themselves. (Spare me, please, justifications about a "subsistence harvest." Our calendar reads Two Thousand and Four, not Eighteen Hundred and Four where matters of geography fall far short of effective argument in this day and age.)

Moreover, let's hope that PETA will have a few things to say about this. We get all righteous here at DU when Arnold wants to kill puppies and kittens three days sooner than the current law allows for few million in the budget, but seem to have far more tolerance for less "cuddly" creatures if their slaughter will turn a red state blue.

Damn hyopcrites. And save your comments about eating meat, wearing or using leather, or any of the other anti-PETA crap we animal rights supporters must suffer here at DU. I do neither and although I realize most still do - having allowed their own selfish interests, pragmatism, and laziness to prevail in their own greater "scheme of things" vis-a-vis the abuse of animals in all of its forms - I would prefer that my candidate not make such a dramatically gross (and primitive) statement in his appeal to the electorate.

[DaveSZ]

17. Pro gun here

I also believe the NRA has gone off the deep end so to speak.

I think it's important that we protect habitat for hunting, and Kerry has a record of doing that.

[Chomskyite]

19. Kerry will likely do this

If I'm Kerry, this sort of thing is just icing on the cake. I go and I smile for the cameras. It's something I don't even have to think about first.