When the American Museum of Fly Fishing hooked Dick Cheney for a fund-raising dinner, critics howled that they should throw him back.
Cheney - whose Secret Service code name was "Angler" - spearheaded energy policy at the White House and bears blame, detractors say, for the Bush administration's poor environmental record.
"The entire fly fishing community is appalled and disgusted," said Ted Williams, conservation editor at Fly Rod & Reel magazine.
"We all need money, but to apply green lipstick to this Darth Vader of fish and wildlife is whoring - it's grotesque," Williams said. "It's as if the Holocaust museum held a dinner to honor [Nazi war criminal] Klaus Barbie."
Steve Wright, a former commissioner of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, blasted the invitation, calling Cheney "one of the great enemies of healthy fish and wildlife conservation in the U.S. over the last eight years."
Cathi Comar, executive director of the Vermont-based museum, said some of the critics "sent me nasty e-mails, calling me names, pretty inappropriate names, I have to say."
One board member also resigned in protest.
TVNL Comment: We have a new found respect for the fly fishing community thanks to their response to this news.