Riding Shotgun is a story in Seven Days about the recent deer hunting trip reporter Paul Heintz was taken on by Governor Shumlin. Reading it made me wonder just a little – and by that I mean not a lot, but still a little – about his closeness to the politician he covers.  

It all started with an apparent off the cuff manly taunt from the governor about hunting but led fairly quickly to a serious invitation.

Five days later, I was riding shotgun in Shumlin’s Dodge Ram pickup truck along the back roads of East Montpelier. It was three days into rifle season, and the governor had finagled an afternoon off after speaking at a Veteran’s Day ceremony in Burlington.

The uneventful politician/reporter hunting trip during which no deer were taken is related in a friendly, all-in-good-fun manner.  

While sharing a snack with his new hunting partner, Heintz might have been thinking back to the term ‘reporter on the tire swing’ coined back in the ’08 McCain presidential campaign as he wondered:

Oh, shit, I thought, I’ve been co-opted. What would Bob Kinzel say if he could see me now?!

However I’d worry less about Kinzel and more about the possible double meaning of the quip the Governor reportedly made earlier to his team

“I told my team I’d have you gutted out and hung up by 4:30,” Shumlin said.

So who’s fair game now?