Posted on 09/10/2008 12:54:41 PM PDT by neverdem
Liberal and conservative Democrats are squaring off over a D.C. gun bill designed to satisfy the National Rifle Association (NRA). But it’s a fight some say the liberals are doomed to lose, at least in the House.
While a bill supported by liberals will likely win a committee vote Wednesday, leadership is clearing a path for the NRA bill to get a floor vote, where it would likely pass, said two sources familiar with the negotiations.
“Norton and Waxman will have their fun tomorrow,” a source who supports the NRA bill said Wednesday, referring to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D). “Then there will be a fair up-and-down vote on the floor.”
A bill nearly identical to the NRA bill has 240 co-sponsors, so if it gets a vote, it is expected to pass. Sources said the process will be set up by the House Rules Committee, which is controlled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
If that’s how it occurs, it will mean that Pelosi has approved the deal, even if she votes against it.
At an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Tuesday on the two bills, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) chuckled at the heated rhetoric about Second Amendment rights and protecting the capital from terrorism, saying it masked what is really going on behind the scenes.
“I feel for you. I’ve been where you are,” Davis, who chaired the panel in the past, said to Chairman Waxman. “We all know your leadership has cut a deal.”
It’s well-known that Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and John Tanner (D-Tenn.) negotiated a deal to get a vote on the NRA bill after the recess. Republicans had worked with the powerful gun lobbying organization on a “discharge petition” to get a bill to the floor that capitalized on the June Supreme Court decision overturning the District of Columbia’s decades-old gun ban.
A discharge petition is a parliamentary move that undercuts the leaders of the majority by allowing a majority of the House to move a bill that leaders or a committee chairman is bottling up. The NRA had threatened to “score” the petition on its annual rankings, so that conservative Democrats who declined to defy their leaders could lose their A-plus ratings from the NRA.
The NRA and Republicans say that the District government is dragging its feet in implementing the June ruling nixing the city’s handgun ban.
But Norton said the NRA bill is undermining public safety in the city she represents. She found a friend in Waxman, whose committee has jurisdiction over the bill.
At a hearing Tuesday, Waxman railed against allowing more guns in the capital city, a terrorist target where police are constantly guarding national leaders and foreign dignitaries.
“The district is a target-rich environment,” Waxman said. “Next Jan. 20, the next president of the United States will be sworn into office. I don’t know if that person will be Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain. But I do know that if the NRA bill becomes law, protecting him will be vastly more difficult.”
Supporters say such rhetoric is overblown, that the bill simply lets D.C. residents use guns to protect themselves by keeping firearms in their homes.
“The letter and intent of the legislation is nothing more than implementing the decision of the Supreme Court,” said chief lobbyist for the NRA Chris W. Cox. “Anyone who suggests that this allows carrying weapons outside the home is lying or hasn’t read the bill.”
“The district is a target-rich environment,” Waxman said. “Next Jan. 20, the next president of the United States will be sworn into office. I don’t know if that person will be Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain. But I do know that if the NRA bill becomes law, protecting him will be vastly more difficult.”
These clowns will say anything, no matter how absurd with a straight face.
OMG, this man's IQ is in the single digits!!! Does this @#$%@#$ moron actually believe that someone who was intent on shooting the President would be at ALL affected by a hand gun ban? How does one get to be so stupid? We should revoke the citizenship of everyone who's ever voted for this man!
Well...it would seem the derangement continues in DC.
Good to see the NRA is moving this thing forward, not that I’m thrilled with the specifics, it just doesn’t sit well with me that our Capitol is such a crime ridden hell hole with people as targets and criminals as powerful.
The fun thing about the NRA’s tactics is they don’t have to win this one to be effective. It’s all about getting names on votes just before the election. Then you can see what little barack really thinks about the Second Amendment.
This should cost barack another five points downward. Couple that with an endorsement for McCain by the NRA that should be another five.
It's those enormous nostrils. His brain fell out.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the Senate. How many Senate Democrats would vote for this bill? Would the Democrats filibuster in a Senate they run?
Thus, the masks come off, and the true intent be known...
the infowarrior
>“The district is a target-rich environment,” Waxman said. “<
If they put some integrity into their lives they wouldn’t have to worry about being a target.
reading the article, its even more absurd to me that the legislative branch is working on designing law to fit a courts opinion, both of which are ultimately still in violation of the original ‘contract with America’...
These pu$$ies are starting to see their mortality as their little Roman empire collapses...just as in those days, queer perversions of Truth can only be sustained for so long.../b HUSSEIN 'nuance'...lolol...
Seeing Weasel Waxman’s name on anything immediately sets the undigested portions of my lunch a-boilin’.
He is typical of the Fifth Column subversive scumbags currently residing in the Democom party.
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