A Daily News photographer captured the 3-by-5 foot Dixie flag affixed to a door in the garage of the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate Union Vale, N.Y. "It's appalling for the VP to be at a private club displaying the flag of lynching, hate and murder," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It's the epitome of an insult." Sharpton demanded Cheney distance himself from the exclusive club where the Stars and Bars was flown, and said he might hold a prayer vigil there. Club officials threatened a reporter with arrest when he sought comment. The flag fiasco is especially upsetting because blacks have recently been subjected to an upsurge of racial threats, including nooses left in Jena, La., and Columbia University, he said.

"This is an outrage - he ought to leave immediately," Sharpton told The News. "He ought to apologize to the American people for being there in the first place." "That flag brings back painful memories of the old, old South," said Elouise Maxey, 59, president of the Northern Dutchess County branch of the NAACP. "I'm disappointed that he would go." Cheney spokeswoman Lee Anne McBride said Cheney did not know anything about the controversy. "The VP did not see the flag and neither did anyone on staff," said McBride.

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"As long as he doesn't shoot somebody in the a--," Bill Tryon, 48, said he was fine with Cheney's visit. Tryon lives in the area. There was no repeat of last year's snafu, when Cheney shot an old pal in the face during a quail hunt in south Texas. "It should be water under the bridge," said Ralph Mondello, who is running for a spot on the local town council.