As for support – yes, it means what I said earlier – politics sometimes makes strange bedfellows. And if you can send a word of thanks to these folks – even if they are gun bigots – thats fine cause their support of Dingell is (in my mind at least) directly supporting the 2nd Amendment.

If you reach out to them, just don’t mention guns. Simply thank them for their support of Chairman Dingell’s long record of leadership.

I guess I should also add, if one of these guys isn’t your congresscritter, don’t worry about supporting them – just don’t draw any conclusion of Dingell’s intent in aligning with them.

Ultimatly, lots of this is a battle of which model you prefer. Chairmenship by Seniority or by fiat of the Speaker. Its also a battle between unions and liberals. The AFL vs SEIU. The auto industry vs the environmentalists.

Dingell’s been around forever, he has lots of allies. And he’s helped many members of the Congressional Black Caucus rise to positions of leadership. Many of those same CBC leaders owe their power to their long tenure in Congress, and while Waxman’s certainly been around forever, what Pelosi is trying to do undermines all their power by making seniority worthless and instead shoring it up in the hands of a San Francisco Liberal.

And after what happened with Prop 8 in California – I probably don’t need to weigh in on the implications within the black community of cementing all of Congress’s power in the hands of a super rich white liberal from San Francisco.

There were some typos, and a half finished sentence. Thats what you get blogging from a blackberry while racing through the streets of downtown DC trying to get to the hospital (Father In Law had some medical issues this week).

As for support – yes, it means what I said earlier – politics sometimes makes strange bedfellows. And if you can send a word of thanks to these folks – even if they are gun bigots – thats fine cause their support of Dingell is (in my mind at least) directly supporting the 2nd Amendment.

If you reach out to them, just don’t mention guns. Simply thank them for their support of Chairman Dingell’s long record of leadership.

I can manage that much easily enough.

I’m certainly not going to advocate real support in any other substantive fashion for Jesse Jackson Jr. :)

We tend to have some disagreements, but if you started urging strong support for JJJ, I would have to give up on you.

The two Illinois Reps. he named, Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Bobby Rush, are definitely gun banning zealots, but I agree that that’s not really at issue here.

I’m not sure what I can do to “support” them in their campaigning for Dingell, though.

Should I take that as an invitation to not be involved?

So be it.