Category: Politics

And Michael Steele wins the race for the Chair of the RNC.

When did John Boehner grow a spine?

The day before the crucial vote in the House, Minority Leader John Boehner told his troops that the Republican Party is no longer a bureaucracy. “He took us by the throat and told us, ‘You’re no longer the majority, stop acting like it,’” a senior Republican told me about the run up to the vote. “‘If you’ve got an idea, get it on MSNBC. This is an entrepreneurial insurgency.’ He was kicking the ball around. He wants everyone involved. If there’s an amendment, he told us to offer it. If you have 48 seconds for YouTube, get it up there. Get busy and resist in every instance.”

More please.  Of course, this also leads to the depressing conclusion that I like Republicans out of power more than I like them in power.

Hat Tip Instapundit

A few days ago I outlined how people could step up and throw some visible and measurable support behind New York’s junior senator.  I warned against gun owners who go with the “wait and see” approach that would encourage all of our guys to sit on the sidelines and show no support until she proves herself again.  What were some of the early responses?  “I will just sit back to wait and see.”

First, reward her for recent past behavior.  The fact is that gun issues don’t come up that often in the Senate.  She signed on to the Heller brief, joining only six other members of Congress from New York.  She’s got a high rating based on her past actions which are the best prediction of her future actions.  Even the wait-and-see advocate SayUncle admitted in his above-linked post that she’s said nothing that indicates she’ll be flipping on the issue.

Second, give her an incentive to stay with us.  Show her that her position reaps rewards.  So what if she frames the debate publicly as about hunting?  That’s her family heritage and a background that many gun owners in her district share.  In the latest survey, there were about half a million resident hunters in New York that spend about $788 million annually and support approximately 11,500 jobs in the state.  That’s a pretty sizeable constituency.  And if it makes her pro-gun record more tolerable for the NYC residents, so be it.  Remember, Heller had nothing to do with hunting, and she supported it.

New numbers show that this is simply not a time to sit back to wait and see.

The survey of New York registered voters said 21 percent are prepared to support her in 2010 while 29 percent prefer someone else. A big part of that work she has to do is with her own party where that figure is 20 percent for her in 2010 and 28 percent against, (by contrast, 24 percent of Republicans say they would support her while 28 percent are opposed). Among Democrats, 63 percent would like to see someone challenge her in a primary while only 11 percent want to see her run unopposed.

Gillibrand’s biggest hurdle will likely be a primary challenge.  There is a possibility that Rudy stepping into the general election could be a huge hurdle since they are statistically tied in a hypothetical match-up.  And in that case, who would gun owners trust more: a Democrat who comes from the part of the state that still votes pro-gun and who has a record of supporting gun rights or a Republican who ran on gun control and ran the part of the state that has some of the most oppressive gun laws in the country?

After my last post, she has more than 150 new supporters on Facebook.  There were some who confirmed via comments or emails that they donated.  It’s time for others to get on board.  She’s proven herself in the past, let’s reward her and show her that it’s a good thing to stick with us.

Jim Geraghty posts this observation from the RNC meeting where they are voting on a new chairman today:

Dear RNC: When all of your candidates for chairman are saying, “We have to get better at getting our message out,”  having no functioning wireless signal is a heavy-handed metaphor for failure.

The good news for gun bloggers is that NRA does a much better job about internet access and blogger relations at their annual meeting than either the RNC or DNC.

Uncle is doing a great job of keeping after Knoxville’s mayor who intends to run for Governor of Tennessee as a current member of Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun.  Bill Haslam has somewhat backed off from his support of the iniatives publicly after the pressure placed upon him, but he still refuses to officially withdraw his support of their agenda by way of membership out of the fear that it will make him look like he gives a damn about what gun owners think.

Considering that Uncle’s site is in the top search results for even a generic search on Bill Haslam’s name, it shows just what kind of pressure a good campaign and local coverage via blogs can create.  I discussed this last year in my presentation at the NRA meeting, and hopefully we’ll see some more results in Tennessee.

The Republicans have taken the first in a long series of steps that will need to be taken to distance themselves from the Bush legacy.  The stimulus package passed without a single Republican vote.  Eleven Democrats bucked Pelosi and Obama to vote against this, and they deserve our appreciation too.  Those Democrats were, Allen Boyd (FL-2), Bobby Bright (AL-2), Jim Cooper (TN-5), Brad Ellsworth (IN-9), Parker Griffith (AL-5), Paul Kanjorski (PA-11), Frank Kratovil (MD-1), Walt Minnick (ID-1), Collin Peterson (MN-7), Heath Shuler (NC-11), and Gene Taylor (MS-4).  I’m happy that I had the opportunity of helping Paul Kanjorski at a few guns shows near his district in my role as NRA-EVC.  Glad to see he’s with me on other issues too.

There’s several freshman Democrats in here, and it’s pretty bold to stand up to your party’s Speaker and its President.  But given that there are a few freshmen in here, I think it’s likely once Pelosi had the votes she needed for passage, she might have told freshman in conservative districts they could vote ‘no’ on this if they felt they had to.  One lone freshman I could believe was principle.  Three is probably a back room nod from Pelosi to vote no.