Some Surprising Details About Cheney's "Hunting" Trip

From The Trib:

The excursion was sponsored by Dan Cook, an investment banker who runs the Dallas office of Goldman Sachs. He had invited Cheney on a hunting trip in 2003 at Rolling Rock.

According to OpenSecrets, Dan Cook is a HUGE Republican donor. He donated $25,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2003 and again in 2004. There were also 2 $25,000 donations from a "Gail" Cook in the same years. Indeed at one point on the same day (4/13/2004). And according to this brochure from The Lamplighter School (a private school in Texas - where Dan Cook is from), Dan Cook's wife is named (now you guessed it) "Gail." Maybe it's a coincidence, but we're up to $100,000 so far.

Then there's another $20,000 over the past 4 years ($5,000 each) to the Club for Growth, Leadership for America's Future, National Republican Congressional Committee, and Republican National State Elections Committee.

That's $120,000.

Then there's the $14,5000 Dan and Gail have given to former Senator George ("macaca") Allen. I wonder if they regret it.

And then there's $2,000 to our own Rick Santorum. Which leads very nicely to the next paragraphs from The Trib:

Also in the hunting party were former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum; Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association; and Tom Hicks, CEO of Dallas-based Hicks Holdings, one of the groups that in December purchased Latrobe Steel Co. Hicks' group owns baseball's Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League.

The group included Sam Fox, former state finance chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign; Stephen Friedman, chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board; Fred Eckert, a lobbyist and former U.S. representative from New York; L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center and a Tribune-Review columnist; and Dick Scarlett, CEO of United Bancorporation of Wyoming.

Secrecy was the watchword.

Of course it was.

I wonder if there was any talk about hunting safety from the executive vice president of the NRA. Stephen Friedman, by the way, was the guy who replaced Brent Scowcroft (after Scowcroft was fired) as chairman of the Intelligence Advisory Board. Scowcroft is no fan of dubya's war, in case you didn't know.

Brent Bozell was in Pennsylvania yesterday? That explains those whiffs of journalistic brimstone I smelled when the wind came from the east.