Far more interesting than the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney owed Texas Parks and Wildlife $7 for another hunting stamp (DMN headline) was the information revealed in the New York Times story this morning that hunting hostess Katharine Armstrong is a lobbyist. Oh yes, the daughter of one of Texas’ most notable Republican families, is also a public relations consultant. She’s the one who notified the Corpus Christi newspaper Sunday morning of the hunting accident that is now being depicted as a PR debacle in Washington.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan was peppered with questions at a Monday press conference about the delay in notification of the incident and why the news did not emanate from the vice president’s office.

Ms. Armstrong, who has been listed as the owner of the ranch made famous in political circles by her parents, Anne and Tobin Armstrong, is identified in Ray Sasser’s DMN story as a Dallas businesswoman but not identified in the page 1 story that leads with the hunting stamp. The Times, meanwhile, calls her a lobbyist and longtime friend of Mr. Cheney and says her lobbying clients include several that do business with the federal government. However, it reports, “she said she did not believe that she had ever lobbied Mr. Cheney.”

Ms. Armstrong declined to list her lobbying clients to The Times, but public documents showed that she registered in 2004 as a lobbyist for Parsons, an engineering and construction firm that has done extensive work in Iraq. The story also lists other Washington and Texas clients.

The Armstrong family is famous in Texas political circles for helping to grow the state GOP. The Armstrongs have been called second only to the Bush family in Texas Republican politics. Anne and Tobin Armstrong were Republican activists when historians say that Texas Republicans could meet in a telephone booth. In the early 1970s, Anne Armstrong -- "mommy" to Katharine -- was cochairman of the Republican National Committee and was appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James.

The late Mr. Armstrong served for free in the first administration (1978-1982) of former Gov. Bill Clements as appointments secretary. He was responsible for infusing Texas government with Republican activists after a century of Democrats in power, recommending the appointment of thousands of Texans to state boards and commissions -- which is one of the biggest powers of a Texas governor.

Over the years, the family has kept up with political friends and associates, as indicated by the weekend quail hunt. One participant, who President George W. Bush appointed ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Pamela Pitzer Willeford, is the wife of former Texas Republican State Chairman George Willeford.

Politics really is a small, small world, after all.

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