You know, I think I did the right thing, but it doesn’t feel right. I keep thinking about the saying among career military officers: Never refuse a combat assignment … because it will hurt your career advancement… maybe I screwed the pooch on this one…

Late this morning, The New York Post called me up and asked me to do another freelance gig for them. The assignment:

Find out who is behind the gag banner plane flying over the Masters making fun of Tiger Woods. Here’s what The Augusta Chronicle had had about it:

An Ohio-based plane that towed banners over the Masters Tournament Thursday poking fun at Tiger Woods’ sex scandal is returning home for now to get some needed repairs required by the Federal Aviation Administration….

During yesterday’s tournament, the plane displayed two banners at different times. The first said: “Tiger: Did you mean Bootyism?” The second read: “Sex addict? Yeah. Right. Sure. Me too.”

The FAA got involved, Bergen said, after FAA air traffic officials in Augusta expressed concern about the banner tower, causing FAA’s flight standards division – considered their investigative arm – to respond.

“It was strictly internal,” she said, noting that no calls or complaints were lodged from outside the FAA….

The guy at the Post said he knew the plane was out of Saluda County, so they wanted me to go there and sniff around until I got the scoop.

It sounded like a challenge; it sounded like fun. Just the sort of thing I liked to do way back in my reporting days — drop into a completely unfamiliar territory and feel my way around until I get the story.

But here’s the thing — I’m busy now, and I can make more than the Post pays per day by selling one more ad on my blog.

But… I always feel bad saying “no” to an opportunity. Now, I worry, the next time they have something fun or interesting going on — such as the Sanford press conference — they won’t call me. And even though I’ve got other things going on, I hate that…