I find it quite interesting that just as Sen. Richard Blumenthal announces that he’s going to bog the pending immigration bill down with gun control amendments, Majority Leader Harry Reid comes out and announces he’s getting the gun control gang back together for another round of stand-alone legislation.
The timing of this makes it appear as though Reid is trying to keep the new gun control crusaders from derailing the entire White House agenda. Of course, if Reid has to do this every time they threaten a key piece of legislation, Sen. Joe Manchin may not ever get a break from having his name attached to gun control in West Virginia for the rest of his term. What he may have believed was a one time thing in the first year of his new term may become a semi-annual debate that always puts his name in the headlines for target the guns of West Virginians. I have no pity for him since he’s clearly digging in for the long haul on this fight. At least Sen. Pat Toomey looked at the writing on the wall and knew to drop the debate.
Do you have newer info that says Toomey got the message? As of 5/17, Toomey is open to reviving M-T or similar?
http://mobile.philly.com/news/politics/?wss=/philly/news/politics&id=207811681
He’s not taking a leadership role on it at this point. He doesn’t appear to be part of these talks with Reid, Manchin, and Biden. I never said he wouldn’t vote for it if it came up again, but I haven’t seen him out taking a lead on the issue and whipping up votes. It seems as if he’s basically told the Democrats that it is up to them to find the votes to pass it, and he’s otherwise going to focus most of his efforts elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending him. I’m just noting that his involvement in this bill post-failure has been very different than Joe Manchin’s behavior and statements.
“At least Sen. Pat Toomey looked at the writing on the wall and knew to drop the debate.”
And he knew that from experience, knowing that as long as he’s considered a “conservative Republican,” gun owners will forget what he did, before sundown, and be carrying him on their shoulders come next election. And chances are, more than one of our major RKBA organizations will help provide cover for him, as long as he’s a good little conservative on all the other issues.