The only Democrat in Iowa’s congressional delegation says Republican Vice President Dick Cheney needs to “come clean” about what happened last Saturday on a Texas hunting expedition. Cheney is scheduled for the first time to speak publicly about the incident at five o’clock this (Wednesday) evening on the FOX news channel, and Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, says Cheney should have been publicly explaining his actions days ago.

“It’s always good policy, it seems to me, that when something like that occurs, you ought to tell it yourself,” Boswell says. He says there’s concern about the long delay before the White House or Vice President’s office said anything about the weekend incident, and says they should have made a statement right away.

Boswell talked with Iowa reporters by telephone today (Wednesday), and this was his first reaction when asked to comment on Cheney shooting a hunting companion. Being “just a little facetious” when asked for a comment, Boswell ventured that “If he were to invite me to go huntin’ with him, I’d probably turn him down.”

Members of Congress are still hunting for answers to the problems uncovered in the Homeland Security Agency when hurricanes struck the Gulf Coast this past fall. The chief of Homeland Security is testifying before Congress today (Wednesday), and Boswell says the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, which is now part of Homeland Security, did better when it was a separate agency.

Boswell says the agency should have some of the “very professional people available” put back in its leadership positions. Boswell says FEMA did remarkably well in responding to the Flood of ’93 which struck the nation’s midsection, but some people who were political appointments have not worked out and were not prepared to deal with a big problem.