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Is Sen. Ayotte representing N.H. or
NRA?
By John Breneman
I swear to God, the Senate's infuriating decision to reject
expanded background checks for firearms' purchases despite
90 percent public approval is making me want to shoot (calm
down) my mouth off — on this most divisive and vitally
important issue.
 As
if more evidence was needed that guns can be extremely harmful,
now poor Sen. Kelly Ayotte has shot herself in the foot
trying to prove what a hard-core Republican she is.
I'm sorry, but I don't know what else you call it. She
apparently analyzed the political landscape in the aftermath
of the Newtown massacre (and all those before it, next one
coming soon), absorbed the data that 90 percent of the public
wanted background checks ... and then voted against the
people who elected her.
And since doing so she's been all over the national news.
You've probably seen some headlines and poll numbers. "Ayotte
approval rating plunges 15 percent." "Newtown
victim's daughter confronts Ayotte at town hall event."
"Ayotte's calculated allegiance to extreme right is
wrong for N.H."
Actually, that last one is just my humble opinion.
Look, Kelly Ayotte is from New Hampshire so she's got that
going for her. I'd much rather like her than have to write
about how she's blowing it. I'm thinking maybe she's just
been getting some bad advice.
Flash back to the Republican National Convention last August.
As part of the payoff for buddying up with John McCain and
Lindsey Graham, Republican "rising star" Ayotte
was awarded a nice speaking spot.
Sadly, her most memorable line was pure political dreck.
"President Obama has never even run a lemonade stand
— and it shows."
Really? The bush-league lemonade stand quip leaves a sour
taste as one of the least original lines ever (Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal used it last May and RNC Chairman Reince
Priebus about a week later).
Coincidentally, one of the men whose approval she was courting
— GOP nominee Mitt Romney — also had never run
a lemonade stand. However, records show he did liquidate
several lemonade operations and issued pink slips to their
pre-teen proprietors.
Ayotte's vote and subsequent blowback provides a new window
into the long-held Republican strategy of making sure absolutely
nothing gets accomplished under President Obama — his
opponents have not disguised the fact that they would rather
deny the president any political victories than do their
jobs working for the American people.
This strategy is reprehensible to me.
However, there are examples of Republicans working for
the public good. One is Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who teamed
up with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to craft the compromise
background-check legislation known as the Manchin-Toomey
proposal.
Sen. Toomey, whose approval numbers have risen in the wake
of his advocacy for this modest gun safety measure, shared
his view of Republican motives after the bill failed to
pass the Senate.
"In the end it didn't pass because we're so politicized,"
he said. "There were some on my side who did not want
to be seen helping the president do something he wanted
to get done, just because the president wanted to do it."
Sen. Ayotte's explanation on why she voted against the
bill, against 90 percent of the populace, defies credulity.
Confronted at a town hall event by a man who said he had
read her four-page explanation of the vote and still did
not understand, Ayotte said, "In terms of a universal
background check, as it's been framed, I have a lot of concerns
of that leading to a registry that will create a privacy
situation for lawful firearms owners."
Kelly Ayotte knows that is bull. She knows that, in an
attempt to achieve compromise, Manchin and Toomey specifically
ban the creation of a federal registry and establish harsh
penalties for doing so. And her attempt to snooker New Hampshire
voters with the far right's "federal registry"
talking point was positively cringe-inducing.
Sen. Ayotte's real answer to the gentleman's simple question
— "What's wrong with universal background checks?"
— is this: "Powerful people whose money and support
I believe I need do not want background checks or any gun-safety
measures, and their support is more important to me than
working to create a safer world."
Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association holds its annual
meeting this weekend in Houston — and the "cold
dead hands" people are, uh, bringing out the big guns.
Ted Cruz. Rick Perry. Bobby Jindal. Rick Santorum. Glenn
Beck!
And, of course, Sarah Palin. (Remember when she featured
Rep. Gabby Giffords and other Democrats on a hit list and
mapped their districts with bull's-eyes? That was before
Giffords was shot in January 2011.)
But the speeches — part of what's being billed as
a "Stand and Fight" rally — are all a prelude
to the keynote hater. Bullet-brained rock star Ted Nugent.
Back in 2007, Nugent was quoted as saying, "Barack
Obama, he's a piece of (dung). I told him to suck on my
machine gun" and telling Hillary Clinton, while brandishing
two machine guns onstage, "You might want to ride one
of these into the sunset you worthless (witch)."
Yes, that is the man the NRA has chosen to make the big
speech on the closing day of its big convention.
As I said before, I really want to like Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
But first I'm afraid she'll have to chose another path
than rolling with the Ted Nugent wing of the Republican
Party.
-- 30 --
* This column appeared in the Sunday, May 5, 2013, Portsmouth
Herald. See
more.
Follow on Twitter: @MrBreneman
Related stories:
Value
the human race over the arms race
(Dec. 30, 2102, commentary on Newtown)
Posted on May 5, 2013 9:10 AM
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