Inside the Beltway

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Longing for Yogi

Disney's new animated feature "Brother Bear" is following in the anti-hunting footsteps of "Bambi" as it hits theaters in time for the holidays -- and hunting season.

So charges the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, which says "Brother Bear" (we haven't seen the flick) is about a young Indian hunter, Kenai, who is transformed into a bear. Soon, Kenai becomes the adoptive father of a cub, only to find that another hunter -- like he once was -- is stalking the animal.

"In sportsmen's eyes, the Disney flick could not come at a poorer time," says the alliance, which is preparing for campaigns in Maine and Alaska "to protect bear hunting from anti-hunting attacks that promise to be on the 2004 ballot."

Meanwhile, the alliance says that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has "gone overboard" by modifying a film poster from the Disney blockbuster "Finding Nemo" to promote its anti-fishing campaign.

Disney's cartoon fish, Nemo and Marlin, appear on PETA's Web site and leaflets that read, "Fish are friends, not food!"

Wooing Indian voters

We wrote yesterday about the "religious left" rallying blacks to register to vote in the 2004 presidential election.