Toomey, background checks backer, denounces Obama's move

Politico ^ | 01/05/16 | Burgess Everett

[TroutStalker]

President Barack Obama’s executive action on guns is putting some vulnerable Republican senators in a tough spot, none more than Sen. Pat Toomey.

The Pennsylvania lawmaker broke sharply with his party in 2013 and 2015 by supporting universal background checks, which the Senate voted down both times. On Tuesday, Toomey, who faces a tough reelection race this year, said he still backs the background checks proposal but denounced Obama’s move to expand the system by circumventing Congress.

“I continue to support background checks for all commercial sales of firearms to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill,” Toomey said in a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday. “While I am still awaiting further information about the executive order, the president has abused these actions in the past and exceeded the boundaries of the law. This should not be allowed under our constitutional framework.”

In an address at the White House, Obama singled out Toomey for praise, calling him a “strong” defender of gun rights who worked in “good faith” with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on the issue in 2013. But Toomey's response to Obama's actions are creating friction in Pennsylvanian political circles.

CeaseFirePA, a statewide coalition built to reduce gun violence, has praised Toomey in the past for his work on background checks. But executive director Shira Goodman, who was at the White House for the rollout on Tuesday, expressed exasperation with the senator's critique of the president and said she would have liked to see Toomey support Obama.

"We are not on the same page as Sen. Toomey on executive action today," Goodman said in an interview on Tuesday afternoon. "I think Sen. Toomey does believe in background checks ... he's a pragmatist and problem-solver. He needs to explain" his position further.

Toomey and other Republicans and centrist Democrats who have supported background checks have been critical of Obama’s executive actions on issues from immigration to energy policy to foreign affairs. That gives vulnerable lawmakers like Toomey an avenue to pan the president’s actions while touting their support for a background check bill that fell 12 votes short of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold just last month.

“Like other matters, the most appropriate way for handling firearm issues is when Congress and the president work together,” Toomey said.

Toomey and Manchin, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, devised the background checks bill as a response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Manchin resuscitated the effort last month in the wake of numerous high-profile mass shootings throughout 2015; Toomey supported it but did not speak in favor of the measure on the Senate floor.

Just one Senate Democrat, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, opposed that measure last month. Both Manchin and Heitkamp are up for reelection in deeply conservative states in 2018.

Heitkamp said Tuesday she has "some serious concerns about the President over-stepping his authority to implement some of these proposals," though she also boasted of her support for more mental health funding and strengthening the existing background check system, two other pillars of Obama's executive actions this week.

Toomey and Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona have supported background check expansions in Congress. In deep-blue Illinois, Kirk is even more vulnerable than Toomey; he had no immediate comment on Tuesday regarding Obama’s actions. McCain, who's also up for reelection this year, sidestepped the contents of president's proposal, saying in a statement that “regardless of merit, this is a classic abuse of executive power.”

Two Democrats vying to run against Toomey in the fall, Katie McGinty and former Rep. Joe Sestak, panned the Republican senator’s comments on Tuesday. Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for McGinty, said that “inaction and empty rhetoric from Toomey is no longer acceptable.”

“Once again, Pat Toomey has sidestepped an opportunity to stand in support of gun violence prevention,” Sestak said in an emailed statement. “How much ‘awaiting further information’ does Toomey need?”

Asked to respond, a Toomey campaign spokesman said: “Machine politician Katie McGinty and extreme liberal Joe Sestak‘s attempts to politicize this issue will not distract from the widespread bipartisan praise of Pat Toomey’s courageous leadership to prevent criminals from acquiring guns.”

Toomey’s advocacy for expanded background checks has hurt his standing among gun-rights groups but bolstered his bipartisan bona fides in the swing state of Pennsylvania. He has drawn praise from Sandy Hook Promise and CeaseFirePA, which has a political arm that typically focuses on state races but has not ruled out wading into the 2016 Senate race.

"The voters of Pennsylvania have a lot to think about," said Goodman, the group's executive director.

Pennsylvania’s Senate primary is on April 26. Toomey has drawn just one primary opponent, Everett Stern, a former HSBC whistleblower who flirted with a congressional bid in 2014.

[TroutStalker]

We had such high expectations once for Toomey. Now he is slowly morphing into Arlen Spectre.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Toomey, soon-to-be-unemployed Pennsylvania Senator (thanks to his own gun-grab)

[Red Badger]

The Spectre of Arlen is strong in this one....................

[fatnotlazy]

Toomey’s been behaving himself for the most part since his and Manchin’s “bipartisan common sense gun control” scheme blew up in his face. Lately he's been voting the right way on a number of issues including that POS budget recently passed.

And of my three reps — him, Senator Casey and Rep, Doyle, he's the only one who will answer my emails. Ok, it's a former letter probably drawn up by a staffer, but at least he doesn't ignore me like the other 2.

[TroutStalker]

Once he is in for six more years that could change.

[Theodore R.]

Guess Santorum knew more in 2004 than we did

[Buckeye McFrog]

He’s toast. I know too many people who would refuse to drag themselves out to go and vote for him.

[familyop]

Even most Democrat voters have been against gun control for at least about a decade. The gun control issue has become a class-based conflict.

Meanwhile, nearly all of the high profile mass murderers have suffered from “affluenza.” Crazies from economically influential families would continue to easily obtain firearms. Many other murderers, of course, are downscale (inner city) and tend to buy stolen weapons.

If they want to decrease violent crime, they should focus on “recreational” drug use and its adjunct alcoholism.

[Nickname]

Sounds like the behavior of someone up for reelection soon.

[odawg]

I actually sent his campaign a donation. He was supposed to have been be real deal, a Consistent Conservative. It won’t happen again.