The right to fair comment on Dean even though I will support him as my chairman upon his selection. - The NRA, Dean & political reality in general.
In a 2-1-05 post entitled "Time-out; take five. Taking one's ball and going home not permitted," I wrote (excerpts):
Anyone thinking such thoughts [about leaving the Democratic Party if Dean is not selected as chairman of the DNC] -- be it pro-Dean or anti-Dean such as I strongly harbor -- needs to get into the Three Musketeers mode, All of One and One for All. Regardless of how this thing that used not to even be considered news -- but because of the status of our party now is huge -- we went into this as Democrats and we damn better come out as Democrats.
I enjoyed talking with Mr. Dean in Atlanta at the DNC Southern Caucus meeting. I understand his appeal. But I shutter at the message I think his being elected as our party face for the next couple of years sends. It is comparable to the party nominating Hillary in 2008.
I don't want to be making excuses, saying yes but, and otherwise being defensive in the future about who the DNC chairman is. In fact, all I want to be talking about is the GOP's political overreaching, etc.
But Dean as our head appears to be in the making as the decision of the DNC members, and not only will I live with it, I will support it.
_______________
It is true that I wrote the above "it's time for all of us to come together" after having written an earlier post that same day listing recent Dean endorsements in which I wrote:
Any other endorsements for Dean? My friend Mel has pointed me to the below-noted comments. I don't think the first one is really an endorsement, do you?
_______________
From Rush Limbaugh on 1-31-05:
"Please make him the chairman, please? Please? Please? I hope you guys in the Democratic Party see the wisdom of this."
_______________
And from Dick Morris in the 1-31-05 New York Post:
Now, in choosing their new national leader, the Democratic Party is publishing a . . . suicide note. It reads "Chairman Howard Dean."
What kind of chairman will Dean make? He will probably be as bad for the party's prospects as Nancy Pelosi has been as Democratic leader in the House. He will dig a deeper and deeper hole for the party, alienating its moderate donors and holding it hostage to the likes of Michael Moore and the Hollywood left.
_______________
After doing the first above-noted post, I e-mailed a friend saying that because I didn't want to appear negative given the inevitability of the upcoming Dean selection, I had passed on posting an article from The Hill about how the NRA feels as if it is going to be in hog heaven with both Dean and Sen. Harry Reid.
Because of a column that I am posting after this one about a column entitled "A Short History of Deanism," I have decided to post The Hill article about the NRA, trusting that my readers will recognize that when I say I will support Dean, I will support Dean.
But such support should not and will not serve as a shield to masquerage my thinking and recognition of facts and perception in the world of politics.
Thus, just as I am posting The Hill article on the NRA, I will continue to post articles about Dean -- positive and negative one -- and the postings of ones perceived to be negative should not be considered as a lack of support for our soon-to-be-named DNC chairman. For as of next weekend, he becomes my chairman of my party.
_______________
The following is a 2-3-05 article from The Hill:
The last nail in gun control
The expected election of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National Committee this month will strike a crippling blow to the gun-control movement, lobbyists and political observers say.
Like Dean, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is a strong supporter of gun rights. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports gun control but rarely mentioned the issue before the 2004 election.
National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Director Chris Cox said Dean, whom the NRA endorsed when he was running for governor, was taking over a party that had suffered electorally for its embrace of gun control.
Over the past decade, the issue had become strongly partisan, but gun-rights groups say the political winds have shifted.
Most Democrats supported the renewal of the assault-weapons ban in 2004, but few campaigned on it. To the delight of gun-rights groups, the ban expired in September. Reid, along with five other Senate Democrats, voted against renewing the 10-year ban last March.
Reid has maintained close ties to both local and federal gun-rights groups, particularly the NRA.
On Sept. 22, 2004, Cox wrote Reid a thank-you note stating, “On behalf of the nearly 4 million NRA members nationwide, I wanted to thank you personally for your efforts in defending the Second Amendment during your tenure in Congress.”
Cox pointed out that while Pelosi was “no friend of the NRA,” close to 50 Democrats in the House support the organization.
“We continue to watch both sides of the aisle carefully,” Cox said.Several House Democrats and some Northeastern Republicans strongly urged the president to renew the weapons ban last year. However, they did not attempt to force it to the House floor through a discharge petition.
Much of the attention on the race for DNC chairman has been on abortion. Former Rep. Tim Roemer’s (D-Ind.) bid to run the DNC has been hampered by the fact that he, like Reid, opposes abortion rights. Dean’s huge lead in the DNC race suggests that abortion rights is far more important to the Democratic base than gun control.
Robert Spitzer, political science professor at State University of New York-Cortland said, “The gun issue has historically been a cyclical issue, and we’re in a cycle right now where there is less interest in gun control for a variety of reasons. The Democrats feel they were burned in 2000 on the gun issue. And enough Democrats believe it to be so that the Democratic Party doesn’t have the same zeal for the issue that it did earlier.”
Spitzer added that gun control would eventually get more attention again, saying, “I don’t mean a few months; I mean a few years. But the issue will return.”
Last year, Sen. John Kerry’s campaign arranged several photo opportunities of the presidential candidate hunting. Democrats said the Kerry campaign believed Al Gore made a huge tactical error by repeatedly talking about gun control during the 2000 campaign for the White House.
In his book released last year, former President Clinton wrote that the passage of the gun ban was a major contributing factor in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.
Even so, gun-control advocates say they are not worried about Dean running the DNC. Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said, “If Governor Dean is elected as chair, we are certain he will be someone who represents all facets of the party. We don’t think it would send a serious message that the party was moving in the wrong direction.”
Hamm noted that Dean supported renewing the assault-weapons ban in his 2004 presidential campaign.
In November 2003, the Brady Campaign lambasted Dean for saying the issue of guns crossing state borders had been resolved. The group said the remark was “totally untrue and unsupportable.”
The group last year said it did not support Dean because “he has chosen to run to the right of the Democratic Party on gun issues.”
Gun-control advocates were heartened last year when Dean’s bid for president crumbled.
Dean spokeswoman Laura Gross said that if the former governor becomes DNC chairman “he will not be deciding policy” and will instead be focused on “getting Democrats elected.”
Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, said Democrats would have chances this year to alter their image on gun owners by voting for gun-rights legislation.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (H.R. 1036) and the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act (H.R. 3193) will be reintroduced this year, along with their respective versions in the Senate.
H.R. 1036 would prevent firearms manufacturers from being held responsible for the criminal misuse of their products. H.R. 3193 would repeal the D.C. gun ban.
“Harry Reid needs to make sure his boys in the Senate don’t throw up a filibuster to block these [bills] from going through,” Pratt said.
_______________
And for the record, if Dean was sincere -- as opposed to saying what he thought he needed to say to win the Democratic nomination -- when he said during his 2004 campaign for president that he supported renewing the assault-weapons ban, I am with him on this count.
But as I also noted (excerpts) in my 1-25-05 post entitled "Let's work to bring back those who used to vote Democratic, but are now living poor & voting rich. - Let's not pass up an opportunity of a decade:"
Let's raise those flaps on our Big Tent. The GOP doesn't own God or have the market cornered on values, nor are we ashamed of going to church on Sunday and professing not only to trust but also believe in God. And don't take my guns -- 2 shotguns, a rifle, and a Smith & Wesson 357 Magnum -- away from me.
_______________
I have had a couple of earlier concerning the assault-weapons ban. One was done on 8-8-04, and was entitled "What we have here, is a failure to communicate; what we need here are a few good men. 2 will do," and noted in part:
All right W and JFK, it is time to step up to the plate. The 10-year ban on assault weapons that resulted from passage of the so-called Brady Bill under President Clinton, will expire Sept. 13.
President Bush has endorsed an extension of the ban, but he is not pushing Congress to act. Ditto John Kerry (the below link implies that Kerry is pushing; he is not (see The Hill dated 7-29-04)).
Today [meaning August 8, 2004] the ajc has a story on this issue. It notes:
"Polls have consistently shown that a majority of the public favors an assault weapons ban. An April 23 survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a research arm of the University of Pennsylvania, found that 71 percent of the public supports continuation of the ban, compared with 23 percent opposed.
"Among gun-owning households, 64 percent favor the ban, according to the Annenberg survey of 28,446 adults. In homes with an NRA member, 46 percent said they want the ban, compared with 49 percent opposed.
"The national surveys, however, don't always reflect the issue's political volatility or the depth of feelings about it. Voters in rural and conservative districts tend to chafe at gun restrictions."
_______________
After sharing with my readers the facts in the above-noted post, the following day I told them that while facts and what "ought to be" might be one thing, they do not always go hand in hand with reality.
Thus I shared (excerpts) my practical advice to politicians in the following 8-9-04 post entitled "This isn't your father and grandfather's NRA anymore -- Advice to Democrats: "Shut the hell up:"
Yesterday I did a post on the pending death of the assault weapons ban. Read this in the Washington Post and you understand why.
When it comes to elections, the NRA tends to get its way.
In My Life, former President Bill Clinton writes that the 1994 vote to ban assault weapons came at a high political price, costing many House Democrats their seats in Congress.
(The Hill).
_______________
And then with the assault-weapons ban fixing to expire the following Monday, September 13, 2004, I did the following post (excerpts) on 9-10-04 (and I was being facetious in the title, although it is true that I am a gun owner and own the guns noted above and don't want anyone messing with my guns -- but assault-weapons; geez, this is as different from gun ownership as night and day) entitled "Yes! Yes! I can't wait until Monday. Hey Sally, are my NRA dues current? Make sure. It sure is doing a good job:"
Assault Weapons Ban Ends Quietly
With a 10-year ban on assault weapons due to expire Monday, Congress is about to allow a remarkable reversal: once demonized semiautomatic weapons will again be sold to the public.Around the nation, manufacturers now prohibited from selling the weapons are competing to reap the most out of their return. Beretta USA Corp. is offering two free large-volume magazines with the purchase of certain guns. ArmaLite Inc. is inviting gun buyers to start placing orders for rifles whose manufacture has been banned for 10 years.
Politicians who had only a few years ago responded to public pressure for controls on such weapons are keeping a cautious distance. President Bush says he supports extending the assault weapons ban, but he has not aggressively worked for legislation to extend it. John F. Kerry, his Democratic presidential opponent, voted this year to extend the ban, but the Massachusetts senator often talks about how he enjoys hunting and supports the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
(9-10-04 Los Angles Times.)
Anyone thinking such thoughts [about leaving the Democratic Party if Dean is not selected as chairman of the DNC] -- be it pro-Dean or anti-Dean such as I strongly harbor -- needs to get into the Three Musketeers mode, All of One and One for All. Regardless of how this thing that used not to even be considered news -- but because of the status of our party now is huge -- we went into this as Democrats and we damn better come out as Democrats.
I enjoyed talking with Mr. Dean in Atlanta at the DNC Southern Caucus meeting. I understand his appeal. But I shutter at the message I think his being elected as our party face for the next couple of years sends. It is comparable to the party nominating Hillary in 2008.
I don't want to be making excuses, saying yes but, and otherwise being defensive in the future about who the DNC chairman is. In fact, all I want to be talking about is the GOP's political overreaching, etc.
But Dean as our head appears to be in the making as the decision of the DNC members, and not only will I live with it, I will support it.
_______________
It is true that I wrote the above "it's time for all of us to come together" after having written an earlier post that same day listing recent Dean endorsements in which I wrote:
Any other endorsements for Dean? My friend Mel has pointed me to the below-noted comments. I don't think the first one is really an endorsement, do you?
_______________
From Rush Limbaugh on 1-31-05:
"Please make him the chairman, please? Please? Please? I hope you guys in the Democratic Party see the wisdom of this."
_______________
And from Dick Morris in the 1-31-05 New York Post:
Now, in choosing their new national leader, the Democratic Party is publishing a . . . suicide note. It reads "Chairman Howard Dean."
What kind of chairman will Dean make? He will probably be as bad for the party's prospects as Nancy Pelosi has been as Democratic leader in the House. He will dig a deeper and deeper hole for the party, alienating its moderate donors and holding it hostage to the likes of Michael Moore and the Hollywood left.
_______________
After doing the first above-noted post, I e-mailed a friend saying that because I didn't want to appear negative given the inevitability of the upcoming Dean selection, I had passed on posting an article from The Hill about how the NRA feels as if it is going to be in hog heaven with both Dean and Sen. Harry Reid.
Because of a column that I am posting after this one about a column entitled "A Short History of Deanism," I have decided to post The Hill article about the NRA, trusting that my readers will recognize that when I say I will support Dean, I will support Dean.
But such support should not and will not serve as a shield to masquerage my thinking and recognition of facts and perception in the world of politics.
Thus, just as I am posting The Hill article on the NRA, I will continue to post articles about Dean -- positive and negative one -- and the postings of ones perceived to be negative should not be considered as a lack of support for our soon-to-be-named DNC chairman. For as of next weekend, he becomes my chairman of my party.
_______________
The following is a 2-3-05 article from The Hill:
The last nail in gun control
The expected election of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National Committee this month will strike a crippling blow to the gun-control movement, lobbyists and political observers say.
Like Dean, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is a strong supporter of gun rights. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports gun control but rarely mentioned the issue before the 2004 election.
National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Director Chris Cox said Dean, whom the NRA endorsed when he was running for governor, was taking over a party that had suffered electorally for its embrace of gun control.
Over the past decade, the issue had become strongly partisan, but gun-rights groups say the political winds have shifted.
Most Democrats supported the renewal of the assault-weapons ban in 2004, but few campaigned on it. To the delight of gun-rights groups, the ban expired in September. Reid, along with five other Senate Democrats, voted against renewing the 10-year ban last March.
Reid has maintained close ties to both local and federal gun-rights groups, particularly the NRA.
On Sept. 22, 2004, Cox wrote Reid a thank-you note stating, “On behalf of the nearly 4 million NRA members nationwide, I wanted to thank you personally for your efforts in defending the Second Amendment during your tenure in Congress.”
Cox pointed out that while Pelosi was “no friend of the NRA,” close to 50 Democrats in the House support the organization.
“We continue to watch both sides of the aisle carefully,” Cox said.Several House Democrats and some Northeastern Republicans strongly urged the president to renew the weapons ban last year. However, they did not attempt to force it to the House floor through a discharge petition.
Much of the attention on the race for DNC chairman has been on abortion. Former Rep. Tim Roemer’s (D-Ind.) bid to run the DNC has been hampered by the fact that he, like Reid, opposes abortion rights. Dean’s huge lead in the DNC race suggests that abortion rights is far more important to the Democratic base than gun control.
Robert Spitzer, political science professor at State University of New York-Cortland said, “The gun issue has historically been a cyclical issue, and we’re in a cycle right now where there is less interest in gun control for a variety of reasons. The Democrats feel they were burned in 2000 on the gun issue. And enough Democrats believe it to be so that the Democratic Party doesn’t have the same zeal for the issue that it did earlier.”
Spitzer added that gun control would eventually get more attention again, saying, “I don’t mean a few months; I mean a few years. But the issue will return.”
Last year, Sen. John Kerry’s campaign arranged several photo opportunities of the presidential candidate hunting. Democrats said the Kerry campaign believed Al Gore made a huge tactical error by repeatedly talking about gun control during the 2000 campaign for the White House.
In his book released last year, former President Clinton wrote that the passage of the gun ban was a major contributing factor in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.
Even so, gun-control advocates say they are not worried about Dean running the DNC. Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said, “If Governor Dean is elected as chair, we are certain he will be someone who represents all facets of the party. We don’t think it would send a serious message that the party was moving in the wrong direction.”
Hamm noted that Dean supported renewing the assault-weapons ban in his 2004 presidential campaign.
In November 2003, the Brady Campaign lambasted Dean for saying the issue of guns crossing state borders had been resolved. The group said the remark was “totally untrue and unsupportable.”
The group last year said it did not support Dean because “he has chosen to run to the right of the Democratic Party on gun issues.”
Gun-control advocates were heartened last year when Dean’s bid for president crumbled.
Dean spokeswoman Laura Gross said that if the former governor becomes DNC chairman “he will not be deciding policy” and will instead be focused on “getting Democrats elected.”
Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, said Democrats would have chances this year to alter their image on gun owners by voting for gun-rights legislation.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (H.R. 1036) and the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act (H.R. 3193) will be reintroduced this year, along with their respective versions in the Senate.
H.R. 1036 would prevent firearms manufacturers from being held responsible for the criminal misuse of their products. H.R. 3193 would repeal the D.C. gun ban.
“Harry Reid needs to make sure his boys in the Senate don’t throw up a filibuster to block these [bills] from going through,” Pratt said.
_______________
And for the record, if Dean was sincere -- as opposed to saying what he thought he needed to say to win the Democratic nomination -- when he said during his 2004 campaign for president that he supported renewing the assault-weapons ban, I am with him on this count.
But as I also noted (excerpts) in my 1-25-05 post entitled "Let's work to bring back those who used to vote Democratic, but are now living poor & voting rich. - Let's not pass up an opportunity of a decade:"
Let's raise those flaps on our Big Tent. The GOP doesn't own God or have the market cornered on values, nor are we ashamed of going to church on Sunday and professing not only to trust but also believe in God. And don't take my guns -- 2 shotguns, a rifle, and a Smith & Wesson 357 Magnum -- away from me.
_______________
I have had a couple of earlier concerning the assault-weapons ban. One was done on 8-8-04, and was entitled "What we have here, is a failure to communicate; what we need here are a few good men. 2 will do," and noted in part:
All right W and JFK, it is time to step up to the plate. The 10-year ban on assault weapons that resulted from passage of the so-called Brady Bill under President Clinton, will expire Sept. 13.
President Bush has endorsed an extension of the ban, but he is not pushing Congress to act. Ditto John Kerry (the below link implies that Kerry is pushing; he is not (see The Hill dated 7-29-04)).
Today [meaning August 8, 2004] the ajc has a story on this issue. It notes:
"Polls have consistently shown that a majority of the public favors an assault weapons ban. An April 23 survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a research arm of the University of Pennsylvania, found that 71 percent of the public supports continuation of the ban, compared with 23 percent opposed.
"Among gun-owning households, 64 percent favor the ban, according to the Annenberg survey of 28,446 adults. In homes with an NRA member, 46 percent said they want the ban, compared with 49 percent opposed.
"The national surveys, however, don't always reflect the issue's political volatility or the depth of feelings about it. Voters in rural and conservative districts tend to chafe at gun restrictions."
_______________
After sharing with my readers the facts in the above-noted post, the following day I told them that while facts and what "ought to be" might be one thing, they do not always go hand in hand with reality.
Thus I shared (excerpts) my practical advice to politicians in the following 8-9-04 post entitled "This isn't your father and grandfather's NRA anymore -- Advice to Democrats: "Shut the hell up:"
Yesterday I did a post on the pending death of the assault weapons ban. Read this in the Washington Post and you understand why.
When it comes to elections, the NRA tends to get its way.
In My Life, former President Bill Clinton writes that the 1994 vote to ban assault weapons came at a high political price, costing many House Democrats their seats in Congress.
(The Hill).
_______________
And then with the assault-weapons ban fixing to expire the following Monday, September 13, 2004, I did the following post (excerpts) on 9-10-04 (and I was being facetious in the title, although it is true that I am a gun owner and own the guns noted above and don't want anyone messing with my guns -- but assault-weapons; geez, this is as different from gun ownership as night and day) entitled "Yes! Yes! I can't wait until Monday. Hey Sally, are my NRA dues current? Make sure. It sure is doing a good job:"
Assault Weapons Ban Ends Quietly
With a 10-year ban on assault weapons due to expire Monday, Congress is about to allow a remarkable reversal: once demonized semiautomatic weapons will again be sold to the public.Around the nation, manufacturers now prohibited from selling the weapons are competing to reap the most out of their return. Beretta USA Corp. is offering two free large-volume magazines with the purchase of certain guns. ArmaLite Inc. is inviting gun buyers to start placing orders for rifles whose manufacture has been banned for 10 years.
Politicians who had only a few years ago responded to public pressure for controls on such weapons are keeping a cautious distance. President Bush says he supports extending the assault weapons ban, but he has not aggressively worked for legislation to extend it. John F. Kerry, his Democratic presidential opponent, voted this year to extend the ban, but the Massachusetts senator often talks about how he enjoys hunting and supports the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
(9-10-04 Los Angles Times.)
posted by Sid Cottingham | 8:21 AM
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