Henry trip planner says nothing's fishy about it

/> "With Henry chummy as ever with Oklahoma's most powerful trial lawyers, it looks as if we are set for another tort reform showdown next legislative session,” Oklahoma GOP Chairman Gary Jones wrote in an e-mail message. "Republican lawmakers shouldn't back down from this fight, but Henry's current schmooze-cruise doesn't make the fight any easier.”

Who went on trip, who paid?

West said his son, Brad, grew up next door to Henry in Shawnee and had gone on hunting and fishing trips with him nearly annually for nearly 30 years. "It doesn't seem like anything unusual to us, but when he gets to be governor, it seems like it becomes more interesting,” West said. "The curiosity, I suppose, is that people who went were trial lawyers and that's, I guess, primarily a result that most of my friends are lawyers.”

West said 10 of the 18 anglers on the 10-day trip that ended Monday were lawyers, and that some on the trip had not known Henry before.

The governor paid his own way for the trip. The state, as required by law, paid the costs of his security detail. The normal charge for the fishing trip, according to the charter company's Web site, is $4,250 a person.

Henry declined to comment.

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