And as I predicted long ago,
Senate Republicans have filibustered the gun bill.
The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda
to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand
background checks.
It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with five Democrats voting against it. Only four Republicans supported it.
Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Heidi
Heitkamp (N.D.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (Nev.) voted against it. Reid supported the measure but voted
against it to preserve his ability to bring the measure up again.
GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) voted "yes."
With 41 of the 45 GOP senators voting against it, it didn't matter what the Democrats did. And so the GOP blocks yet another bill that a majority of Americans wanted to pass. Republican senators simply don't have anything to fear from voting against gun control, but everything to fear from voting for it.
Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments
have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy
Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked
into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at
point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed
sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These
senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show
overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these
senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.
I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re
going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated
issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the
State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue
is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither.
These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold
calculations about the money of special interests like the National
Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25
million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.
The reality is the NRA will handsomely reward the GOP senators who killed this bill, and they will use that money to buy ads calling their Democratic opponents tyrants and socialists and they will win. They will win in states like Texas and South Carolina and Kansas and Mississippi and Wyoming and Kentucky and they will win easily
because voters in those states are simply not interested in punishing senators for voting against President Obama's "gun grab".
Until that changes, Gabby Giffords can write as many op-eds as she likes. Voters in red states just don't give a damn. The President today called this round one. The fight will take a long time. But nothing's going to change until the lock on red states is cracked open.
1 comment:
When they say "it failed by a vote of 54-46", any logical person would assume that it was the background check that got 46 votes, and the NRA opposition that got 54. But it's just the opposite. In this bizarro country, a majority of 8 means failure. Not unless they were down to 40 and we beat them by 20 votes could the bill even go for a final vote.
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