CBS Sports golf analyst David Feherty has gotten himself into some hot water for a written piece in D Magazine.  Based in Dallas, Feherty was quoted in a feature that asked five residents to talk about their feelings on former President George W. Bush moving to Dallas.

In what he labeled a "metaphor meant to describe how American troops felt about our 43rd president," Feherty wrote this:

"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this though," Feherty wrote toward the end of his column. "Despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

I don't much care for Sen. Reid or Speaker Pelosi.  I hope that Osama bin Laden dies at the nearest possible opportunity.  And I have a really dry sense of humor that often tries to tell a joke with hyperbole.  So, I get where David is coming from with this.  But, I also know that writing this kind of stuff will get me in deep with people on any side of the aisle.  And that's why Feherty is in trouble. 

This is not Europe.  In Britain, worse things are said on the floor of the House of Commons.  (Watch it late at night on C-SPAN2 sometime.)

Feherty is also not a politician, policy analyst, or the ever amorphous job description of "political pundit."  Illinois Senator Dick Durbin compared our troops to the Nazis, but it seems like the private citizen is in more trouble here.

David Feherty is a golf analyst, or at least that is how people know him.  But people who jump in this discussion probably do not know that he has spent significant time in Iraq in support of our troops.  (For the record, so has Kelly Tilghman.)  Jay Busbee had an interview with David earlier this year after a recent visit to Iraq.  In the interview, David - again speaking his mind - makes it clear that he loves the US of A and doesn't care much for politicians.

I've lived so many other places, and it's given me some perspective. The average American wouldn't believe how extraordinary we have it here. Every day I wake up, I think, "Am I still in America? Yes? Thank f---!"

That's flag-waving patriotism.  At the same time, he is awfully scornful of our political leaders.

We've got the smartest people in the world over there, and they get progressively dumber the closer you get to Washington.

Ask 100 Americans if that statement is true or not, and I would wager that at least 70 believe it to be true.

Look, David should not have made printed remarks that are tantamount to a description of murdering the third person in our Presidental line of succession...and Harry Reid and one of the world's most reviled people.

The conservative movement will use as their retort that this joke could have been made a lot of times in the last 8 years if you replaced Pelosi and Reid with President Bush and Vice President Cheney in that elevator.  And that people would have laughed.  They're right.  Still, the joke isn't justified in this country regardless of which political figures are in the elevator.

I like David Feherty on CBS TV.  I think he is quick witted and funny when he is not kissing up to Tiger Woods.  I hope, though, that this incident doesn't cost him (a) his job or (b) his willingness to say what he thinks.  Just be a little more careful about it next time.