Cynics, Thieves, and Whores

The most recent vote on National Reciprocity for concealed carry, while failing, did expose an interesting phenomenon. Namely, that the thieves in the U.S. Senate believe gun owners are idiots, and that they will do anything to get a vote from us.

Judging by the rhetoric they used, they think we are all morons (and maybe they are right, they DO seem to get re-elected). Senator Thune has an interesting press release worth reading about this. You can find it HERE.

Being the cynical sort that I am, I decided to look into the NRA Report card (at the time of their previous election) for each Democrat Senator who voted FOR the Thune Amendment, and when they are up for re-election. I am of the opinion that while several of the Democrats who voted for the Thune Amendment were making votes based on principal, the rest were whores looking for a payoff in the form of votes from NRA members in their upcoming re-election.

I was not disappointed.

The current class of Democrat Senators whose terms expire in 2011, their NRA Rating, and their vote on National Reciprocity:

Bayh : D- : Yea
Bennet : NR : Yea
Boxer : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)
Burris : NR : Nay
Dodd : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)
Dorgan : D+ : Yea
Feingold : D : Yea
Inouye : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)
Leahy : D : Nay
Lincoln : D+ : Yea
Mikulski : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)
Murray : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)
Reid : B : Yea (Safe incumbent, usually for gun rights though)
Schumer : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)
Specter : A : Nay (Darlin' Arlen, the turncoat)
Wyden : F : Nay (Safe incumbent)

Of the Class of 2013, the only surprise vote among the Democrats was:

Conrad : D+ : Yea

Similarly, the surprise vote of the most recent class was:

Hagan : F : Yea

So, an optimist would look at these votes and think "Hey, these Democrats are finally getting on board with protecting our rights". I suppose you could look at it that way, given the recent Heller decision. The other way to look at it is this: These people are up for re-election soon...

As a member of the hated gun lobby (in that I am a gun owner, and I regularly contact my Congress-Critters about gun issues before Congress), I have a slightly different take. My take on this is that these people need and want our votes (because they are whores, remember?). They have been voting partisan politics for a long time, and the demographics are changing in their states and districts. Their political reality is that they are no longer safe enough to vote with Sarah Brady and George Soros. The HuffPo gadflies won't re-elect them all by themselves.

They need us.

They hope that an engineered vote that everybody KNEW was going to fail would provide them with some political cover to come back to us and say "Didn't I do great? I voted for your gun rights. Vote for me." I say that the vote was engineered because Lugar and Voinovich are both "F" rated Republicans and the Dems are in the majority in both houses. So if we fall for this, we will have proven that you really CAN fool most of the people most of the time, especially if your political ad can truthfully say you support gun rights and point to this vote for validation.

Let's not fall for another Hubert Humphrey and vote for these people just because they tossed a bone into our yard. Let's make true Humphrey's quote about us: "...gun owners never forget and very seldom forgive". Let's throw every bum out who dares to trample on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Because, without the Second Amendment, what guarantee do you have for any other right recognized by our Constitution? If these thieves and whores in Congress think it is OK to trample your gun rights, what do you think they are doing to the rest of your civil liberties?

Think about that.

Pax,

Newbius