Jim Tankersley, of The Chicago Tribune, reports:

Republican Mike Huckabee took his presidential campaign for a quick pheasant-hunting expedition in Iowa on Wednesday, and…At one point, Huckabee’s party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads.

[…]

My colleague James Oliphant reports that Huckabee’s party was about 75 yards away from the press corps Wednesday when a pheasant jumped up and flew toward the reporters, drawing several shots. “That was too close,” he reports a cameraman saying.

[…]

Huckabee emerged happily from his hunt, three dead pheasants in tow, Oliphant reports. Asked for a metaphor to describe the hunt, he replied, “Don’t get in my way. This is what happens.”

Jose Antonio Vargas, of the Washington Post, wrote:

…In the first 30 minutes, Huckabee, Saltzman and a friend shot three birds. Their last shot flew over the heads of reporters, one of whom cried out: “Oh my God! Oh my God! Don’t shoot. This is traumatizing.”

Moments later, when Huckabee took a break, a reporter yelled out: “Who are those birds? Romney? Thompson?”

“Well … these three birds all said they would not vote for me on caucus day. You see what happened?”

The Trail then asked Huckabee: “What does hunting have to do with running for president?”

Huckabee, who said he’s been hunting avidly for 12 years, mostly ducks, deer and turkeys, said: “There’s a lot of similarities in that it is about the pursuit and you have to be patient and you have to persevere and you have to realize that sometimes you can hunt all day and it doesn’t look like you’re gonna come out with a thing and then the biggest buck in the whole woods comes out and you take it two minutes before the end of shooting time.”

He continued: “In our campaign, a lot of people didn’t think we were even in the game, and here we are at the end of the time leading up to caucuses and we proved that if you just stay out there in the woods, keep your gun ready, it might turn out okay.”

Important Disclaimer: Ft. Hard Knox does not condone shooting in the direction of human beings, even reporters, except in self defense or acts of war.

(Hat-Tip, OkieCampaigns)