Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney answers questions during a media availability in Indianapolis, Thursday, April 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Posted on 04/07/2007 7:57:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BOSTON - 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 is because he seldom has hunted where he needed one.
Questions about his hunting activities trailed Romney this past 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 gone hunting just twice — once as a teenager in Idaho and last year with GOP donors in Georgia.
That was wrong, Romney said a day later. He said he had hunted rabbits and other small animals for many years, mainly in Utah. Hunting certain small game there does not 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."
Clampett, the character played by actor Buddy Ebsen on the 1960s television show "The Beverly Hillbillies," was the head of a newly rich Ozark family plunked down in Beverly Hills.
Romney has been criticized for changing positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights during his campaign for the Republican nomination for president. Although he once supported strict gun control measures, he has spoken in favor of gun ownership rights while on the campaign trail and joined the National Rifle Association as a "Lifetime" member last year.
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.
Romney was born in Michigan, where he lived in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. After completing his undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, he moved to Massachusetts in 1971. He received a joint law-business degree from Harvard University, launched a successful business career and raised his family.
Romney and his wife, Ann, have two vacation homes, a lake house in New Hampshire and a ski house outside Park City, Utah.
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.
When he corrected his staff's statement during a news conference Thursday in Indianapolis, Romney said: "I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter, small varmints, if you will." He added: "I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney answers questions during a media availability in Indianapolis, Thursday, April 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney answers questions.
Or not.
” Can I get me one of those hunting license thingamajigs here?”
Well, Romney’s at least skilled enough to shoot himself in the foot, if nothing else..
LOL! Dad told me years ago never to trust any politician, especially one from Massachusetts, he was right.
No, it’s a classic case of typical MSM targeting of any and every viable Republican candidate . They will do the same to any and every viable announced Republican candidate including Thompson and Newt if they were in . This will be good though, as it will allow Romney to reinforce his stand regarding the gun issue .
Where are the investigative stories on Hitlary and Barry O’Bama ?
I have never fired a gun but once, when a law partner testosteroned me into it, at a range. I found the recoil disconcerting.
My youngest son and I varmint hunt. rats, moles, groundhogs and such. Sometimes we set up bait stations and wait late at night for them to show up.
Cool, if somewhat graphic website dedicated to rats.
It's been awhile, but we posted a couple of kills there.
We use blowguns, CO2 powered pistols and a pump airgun. About a month or so ago we had snow on the ground. I was at the back window watching birds at the feeder when a mouse came out of the snow and started eating the feed that had fallen on the ground.
Kinda surprised me because it was braod daylinght in the middle of the afternoon. I grabbed the CO2 pistol, opened the window and squeezed off a few shots. Even though I was pretty far away for the pistol, the first must have hit him in the head because he jumped then started wobbling around.
Since he was moving he was harder to hit. A couple shots short another long and then I hit him good. He rolled down the hill and jsut layed there. But before I could go out to make sure he was finished the neighbor's cat showed up and made off with him.
Hmmm...maybe Mitt is thinkin' about huntin' ratz...
prisoner6
“This is a classic case of trying to be all things to all people”
Possibly. However, he has been a fairly busy man in the last few year’s. Being Governor of Massachussett does not allow free time to shoot vermin. Yes?
I believe he has a house in Colorado may be shoots off his deck there, like I would like to do- darn squirrels!
Geeze, what is it with these politicians (both parties) and hunting??? I could care less if they have ever been hunting or shot a firearm in their lives.
The only thing in that area of interest to any thinking voter is whether the politician believes in, understands and will protect the the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
I don’t care if the guy has personally bagged Kodiaks in Alaska and Cape Buffalo in Africa, and kept the family fed with wild game all his life, if he doesn’t “Get” the right of people to defend themselves from crime (or Congress) with their own weapons.
Man’s got to know his limitations.
Where are the investigative stories on Hitlary and Barry O’Bama ?
Bingo. While it was a stupid statement relatively easily disproved I for one will not expect any perfect candidate until the AP and the rest of the LMSM conduct the same scrutiny to Hillary, Obama, Edwards and the rest of their liberal ilk. The LMSM is only trying to divide and conquer but if any of their ilk are reading this let me just say that once the dust settles and the nomination secured I will vote for whomever is the Republican nominee. Nothing can be worse than Hillary, Obama, Steny "The Terrorist's Diplomat" Hoyer, CIC Pelosi etc.
Call this a “Gate” this is kooky, there was no break in, or law records missing....
Mitt’s doing a rope a dope with the media. Watch him and his sons (a couple of his sons love guns — and guess what, their Dad showed them the ropes) produce some video of his escapades at his vacation home in Utah.
I loved the Jed Clampett reference!
I'm Chris Matthews, let's play Hardball. With the 2006 mid-term elections only about eighteen months away, we'll be visiting many of the so-called 'red-states' soon, but today I'm joined by a transplant - a man who moved from deep in the hills of the south all the way to Beverly Hills, California. With me here in the studio is Jed Clampett; welcome to the show, sir.
Jed Clampett
Why, thank ya kindly, Mr. Matthews.
Chris Matthews
Your story is pretty amazing. It says here that one day you were shooting at some food, and then something happened - tell us what that was.
Jed Clampett
Well, like you say, one day I was shootin' at some food...
Chris Matthews
Right, right...
Jed Clampett
And up from the ground come a-bubblin' crude.
Chris Matthews
Oil, that is.
Jed Clampett
Yessir.
Chris Matthews
Is it true they also call it black gold or Texas tea?
Jed Clampett
I can't rightly say, bein' as I don't know.
Chris Matthews
I think I heard that somewhere before, I'm not sure where. So the next thing you know, you're a millionaire. What was your family's reaction?
Jed Clampett
My kinfolk said, "Jed, move away from there." Said, "Californy is the place you oughta be."
Chris Matthews
So you loaded up the truck.
Jed Clampett
Yep. And moved to Beverly...Hills, that is.
Chris Matthews
Wow. Now, you obviously moved up a tax bracket after finding oil, right?
Jed Clampett
Nosir, like I was just sayin', we moved to Beverly Hills. Ain't got nothin' against Tax Bracket, just ain't never been there.
Chris Matthews
HA! I love a guest with a sense of humor. But seriously, as a result of that one gunshot you made a fortune in oil, much like the Bushes.
Jed Clampett
Well, lessee, there was some bushes out there that day, and some briar, a whole lotta trees...
Chris Matthews
I was referring to the Bushes in the White House.
Jed Clampett
Well, Mr. Matthews, there's a whole lotta white houses out t' Beverly Hills, and most of 'em's got bushes. Includin' mine.
Chris Matthews
Wow! So what you're saying is that, contrary to popular belief, there are a lot more conservatives in these supposedly liberal areas like Beverly Hills then we've been led to believe, and you would include yourself in that group?
Jed Clampett
Well, that ain't what I said, but you seem like a real smart feller, so I'll take yer word for it.
Chris Matthews
Touché. So why do they keep their political leanings so close to the vest?
Jed Clampett
Hard to say. I don't never wear a vest myself 'cept when I'm goin' to church.
Chris Matthews
Huh. I see - so the only time you and these other Beverly Hills conservatives can really let your hair down, politically speaking that is, is when you're at church.
Jed Clampett
Is my hair hangin' down? Granny was gonna take some shears to it 'fore I went on teevee, but Jethro fell in the cee-ment pond and I had to fish the boy out. By the time he was dried off we was runnin' late.
Chris Matthews
Don't worry, you look great. So let me ask you this - are people in your community, and we're talking specifically about those who are right of center, are they actually concealing their political beliefs and opinions on a day-to-day basis in order to avoid conflict?
Jed Clampett
Well, I wouldn't know nothin' bout that.
Chris Matthews
I understand. I know this is a sensitive subject, and you have a certain social standing to maintain - I don't want to jeopardize that for you.
Jed Clampett
Okey dokey.
Chris Matthews
I understand your nephew Jethro was a Hollywood producer, is that right?
Jed Clampett
The boy did try that fer a while. He never did get to make no movies, tho.
Chris Matthews
You have to do a lot of schmoozing in that business. Do you think he was shut out of the Hollywood social scene because of your conservative beliefs?
Jed Clampett
To be right honest with you, I don't really know what yer talkin' about.
Chris Matthews
Right, right - don't ask, don't tell. Understood.
Jed Clampett
Well, I wasn't about to ask anything, and I ain't exactly sure what it is you don't want me to tell you.
Chris Matthews
HA! I've gotta tell you, you're one of the sharpest guests I've had on this show in a long time.
Jed Clampett
I ain't sure what that means, but sounds like it's a compliment, so thank ya.
Chris Matthews
HA! Stop, you're killing me! So your nephew, he gets out of the movie business - I get the sense he may have been ostracized because of the political climate, but I respect your not wanting to go on the record with that - and he goes into intelligence.
Jed Clampett
Well, I know it ain't proper to boast, but the boy did nearly gradjeeyate the third grade.
Chris Matthews
Wow, and somehow he still managed to get work work as - what kind of spy?
Jed Clampett
Yessir, the boy was a double-naught spy for a spell.
Chris Matthews
Let me just make one thing clear to our viewers before we go any further, and that is that Jethro is no longer active, or there's no way we'd be talking about this. I mean, we don't want another Plame situation on our hands. So why did he stop working as a spy?
Jed Clampett
Well, the hat he was wearin' was right heavy, and it was givin' him headaches somethin' fierce. I ain't altogether sure he was puttin' it on correct.
Chris Matthews
He wouldn't be the first agent that had trouble dealing with the pressures of the job. It's a tough gig.
Jed Clampett
Then he tried to make hisself one o' them shoes what's got a knife in it. Boy put the knife in backwards-like and cut hisself purty bad.
Chris Matthews
I'm not familiar with all these technical terms, but needless to say we honor Jethro's service to his country. Please extend my personal thanks to him.
Jed Clampett
Why, that's right nice o' you, Mr. Matthews.
Chris Matthews
I don't know if you're aware of this, but I was in the Peace Corps for a while myself.
Jed Clampett
...
Chris Matthews
Let's get back to politics. You're an astute observer of human behavior, sort of a Garrison Keillor of the right, you've got a good grasp of politics, at least at a regional level, so let me ask you - what do you think is the biggest challenge facing the Democratic party today? Is it a matter of message, or have they actually become irrelevant in the eyes of blue-state conservatives like yourself?
Jed Clampett
I'm real sorry, Mr. Matthews, but I got no idea what you're gettin' at. Maybe if you use less o' them big words...
Chris Matthews
HA! Oh, this guy kills me. You're really dry, you know that?
Jed Clampett
Well, now that you mention it I am a might parched.
Chris Matthews
HA! HA! You are quick! OK, I understand, you don't want to talk politics and things are getting a little hot.
Jed Clampett
Probly cause o' all these lights you got on in here. I b'lieve that's why I'm so parched.
Chris Matthews
HA! Oh, man, you don't miss a beat. Listen. Mr. Clampett, it's been great having you on the show. We're out of time, but I'd love to have you back sometime, because I've really learned a lot from you. [Turns to camera] That's it for tonight's show, thanks again for watching Hardball.
[Theme music]
Now it's time to say goodbye
To Chris and all his friends
They'll be needin' towels
'Cause their face he's spittin' in
You're all invited back next to MSNBC
To hear Chris ask if them Iraq-folk want democracy
Politics, that is
He likes to yell
Wipe yer chin, boy
Y'all come back now, y'hear?
Your post is exactly correct . Hunting means nothing as long as they will protect the Second Amendment completely.
The so called AWB needs to be redefined because true AW’s are already highly regulated .
The anti-gunners have catch phrased this term and the Republicans play right along because they won’t take 5 minutes to research the issue .
It’s easy to redefine this issue in practical terms and make any Dim or MSM type that brings it up, look like a fool .
Mitt is the perfect candidate to redefine the phony AWB issue once and for all, because he has the true gift of articulate communication . Educate him and the others on this issue .
restornu,
You are misguided! The so-called “Gunnuts” types are the same type who helped create this great country during the American Revolution!
Anyway, the “Gunnuts” are not Romney’s critics. The critics are the Boston Liberal Media, who have for years desperately wanted to paint Romney as a self-serving politician. And it is group of purists who have swallowed this story-line, hook, line and sinker.
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