Harry Reid

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Vote On Obama’s Anti-Gun Surgeon General Choice This Week

December 15, 2014 by 2 Comments

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will be pushing the vote on Dr. Vivek Murthy this coming week. According to the tweet posted on Saturday by Adam Jentleson, Reid’s Communications Director, the vote on cloture will be this week. Thanks to a change in a Senate rules pushed through by Reid last year, Murthy nomination will only need a simple majority to invoke cloture and be confirmed.

Reid is evidently trying to make the most of his remaining time as Majority Leader. Murthy cleared a procedural vote on Saturday by a vote of 52-40 that allows his nomination to come to a vote. Voting in favor of bringing his nomination to a vote include so-called pro-Second Amendment lame duck Democrats Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Mark Begich (D-AK). It is interesting to see how being a lame duck brings out their true colors.

Dr. Vivek Murthy co-founded Doctors for Obama in 2008 which later became Doctors for America. He is profoundly anti-gun and views firearm ownership as a public health issue.

From the NRA-ILA on Murthy’s nomination and his anti-gun views:

A recent letter sent to Congress by “Doctors for America,” and signed by Dr. Murthy, urges mandatory licensing “for anyone purchasing guns and ammunition–including mandatory firearm safety training and testing.” Under Dr. Murthy’s scheme, further regulations would place “limits on the purchase of ammunition,” and establish a “mandatory waiting period of at least 48 hours.”

In the letter, Dr. Murthy also advocates for a “federal ban on the sale” of popular semi-automatic firearms and their ammunition, and proposes a “buyback” of these popular types of firearms to “reduce the number… that are currently in circulation.” Even some of the most ardent anti-gun researchers, along with the Department of Justice, have admitted the futility of gun “buyback” programs.

Another of Dr. Murthy’s proposals would strip vital privacy protections put in place to protect firearm owners and prevent the fracturing of physician-patient relationships. The letter, for example, calls for removing “the provision in the Affordable Care Act and other federal policies that prohibit physicians from documenting gun ownership.” While some advocates of the ACA had argued the provision prohibiting such documentation was unnecessary, given that the ACA had nothing to do with guns, Dr. Murthy obviously sees the ACA as playing a role in gun control.

And, in late 2012 and early 2013, Dr. Murthy took to his personal Twitter account to promote his gun control beliefs, including a statement on October 16, 2012, that “Guns are a health care issue.”

While the Surgeon General has no real power to effect change, he can use the position as a bully pulpit to push issues.

I’d suggest a call and email to your two Senators ASAP. You can get a list of their phone numbers and email contact pages here. Even if you know your Senators are anti-gun, call or email anyway. It still puts them on notice.

UPDATE: A copy of the letter that the NRA-ILA’s Chris Cox sent to Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell regarding Murthy can be seen here. The most salient takeaway from the letter is that they are going to score the vote on Murthy. Of course, this means nothing to the Democrats who lost but at least it should hold the Republicans in line.

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Dingy Harry Is Right – Billionaires Are Trying To Buy Democracy

September 10, 2014 by 2 Comments

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) gave a speech yesterday on the floor of the Senate. It was his first floor speech since the end of the August recess. As The Hill reports it, he said, in part,

“We have had in this country a flood of very, very dark money coming into this nation’s political system,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “Radical billionaires are attempting to buy our democracy.”

Reid is correct in his statement – just not in the billionaires to whom he referred. He, of course, was continuing his jihad against the libertarian Koch brothers.

However, if one were to examine the backers of the universal background check initiative in Washington State, I-594, you would come to the conclusion that a gaggle of billionaires was indeed trying to buy “our democracy.”

Examining the public reports from the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, one finds that a full 72% of the funding for the anti-gun Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility has come from five billionaires (including spouses) plus one very wealthy woman from an “old Seattle family”. In dollar terms, these six have donated $5,171,600 out of the $7,175,542 donated to the anti-gun organization. Small contributions to this gun control ballot initiative total only $63,009 or less than 1% of the total.

So who are these billionaires (or near billionaires), how much have they given individually, what is their estimated net worth, and where do they stand on the Forbes 400 list of richest people in America. Here is the list in order of contributions:

  1. Nick Hanauer, $1,485,000; net worth $1 billion, venture capitalist, Second Avenue Investing

  2. Bill and Melinda Gates, $1,050,000; net worth $72 billion, No. 1 Forbes 400, co-founder Microsoft

  3. Michael Bloomberg*, $1,030,000; net worth $31 billion, No. 10 Forbes 400, founder Bloomberg LP

  4. Connie and Steve Ballmer, $830,000; net worth $18 billion, No. 21 Forbes 400, former CEO Microsoft, owner LA Clippers

  5. Paul Allen, $500,000; net worth $15.8 billion, No 26 Forbes 400, co-founder Microsoft, owner Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers

  6. Ann Pigott Wyckoff, $276,600; net worth est. multi-millions, heiress and daughter of the late Paccar Corporation president Paul Pigott. Paccar manufactures Peterbilt, Kenworth, and Leyland trucks.
To put these contributions into perspective, let’s look at the campaign committee for I-591 which is the other ballot initiative which opposes universal background checks. Protect Our Gun Rights is the campaign committee formed to support I-591. The largest individual (non-organizational) contribution was $1,500 by a Boeing engineer. The primary contributors to Protect Our Gun Rights are the Washington State-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and Washington Arms Collectors. This committee has raised a total of $1,121,535 at last report.
As Dave Workman, the Seattle Gun Rights Examiner, put it, this is a billionaire bombardment and he is correct. So when Dingy Harry speaks of “radical billionaires attempting to buy our democracy”, he just has the wrong set of billionaires in mind. It isn’t the Koch brothers, it is the Hanauers, the Gates, the Allens, the Ballmers, and the Bloombergs who plan to dominate the TV airwaves with their appeals to low information voters in an effort to impose their will on the people of Washington State.
*Bloomberg’s contribution was funneled through MAIG and Everytown for Gun Safety (sic).
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A Thoroughly Despicable Politician

July 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) appeared today on NBC’s Meet The Press. In his interview with David Gregory, he was asked about the Zimmerman trial and the role of the Department of Justice in any further proceedings. He said, “And I think the Justice Department’s going to take a look at this. You know, this isn’t over with, and I think that’s good, that’s our system. It’s gotten better, not worse.”

Harry Reid is a thoroughly despicable politician whose only interest in this affair is keeping racial animosity stirred up so as to keep African-Americans voting in high numbers for the Democrat Party.

Harry Reid is scum and a sad excuse for a human being.

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Willing To Settle?

May 15, 2013 by 4 Comments

On the heels of the IRS being used to target enemies of the Obama Administration and on the heels of the Department of Justice examining the phone records of AP reporters, the gun prohibitionists say they are willing “to settle”  for certain restrictions.

I will admit to having the same visceral reaction to seeing that pusillanimous, pinch-faced Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) speak as I do to seeing Jay Carney make another sneering denial. I want to slap the shit out of them.

Monday, on the floor of the Senate, Reid repeated the lie that the shooter in Newtown had an automatic weapon when in fact he had a Connecticut-legal AR that he took from his mother after killing her. He goes on to say he admires Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) for continuing to push control.

Reid says he, the Sandy Hook families, and the gun prohibitionists will “settle” for prohibitions to prevent “crazy” people (aka people with mental disabilities) and criminals from buying guns.  Has no one ever told them that prohibitions already exist that make it illegal for felons, those convicted of misdemeanors involving domestic violence, and those adjudicated mentally defective or committed to a mental institution to buy a firearm? It is right there on the BATFE’s Form 4473!

Gun rights activists, the NRA, and the NSSF have been pushing for improvements to the NICS background check system. We also want to know why the DOJ and BATFE hasn’t gone after the felons who failed a NICS check while trying to buy a firearm. And what about straw buyers? What good does a new law do when they won’t even enforce existing laws that have teeth in them?

Harry Reid didn’t mention universal background checks but you know he is just biding his time. Given this administration’s blatant attempts to use the IRS to intimidate their political opponents, just think what they could do with a database of gun owners. Thanks but no thanks.

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Sen. Harry Reid’s S.2

February 4, 2013 by 4 Comments

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced S. 2 – Sandy Hook Elementary School Violence Prevention Act of 2013 – on January 22nd. The bill is a Potemkin Village of a bill: it is a facade with nothing behind it. That is nothing behind it – yet.

And therein likes its danger. The bill as it is written now consists solely of a list of items that “express the sense of the Senate”. The co-sponsors of the bill are the usual Democrats who favor more gun control. I fear that this bill will be used as the aggregator for all the gun control proposals that Reid believes he can get passed. These will come as amendments to the bill and given that it is Reid’s bill, he’ll control the debate and the amendments.

The text of the bill is below:

113th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 2
To reduce violence and protect the citizens of the United States.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 22 (legislative day, January 3), 2013
Mr. REID (for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. BROWN, Mr. COONS, Ms. HIRONO, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. MURPHY, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. LEVIN, and Mr. ROCKEFELLER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL
To reduce violence and protect the citizens of the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Sandy Hook Elementary School Violence Reduction Act’.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE SENATE.

It is the sense of the Senate that Congress should–

(1) support the efforts of the President of the United States to reduce violence in the United States;
(2) promote common-sense proposals for preventing gun violence;
(3) provide law enforcement officers with the tools necessary to combat violent crime and protect communities, and protect themselves;
(4) ensure children can attend school free from the threat of violence;
(5) support States and local districts to ensure schools have the safe and successful learning conditions in which all students can excel;
(6) provide tools for identifying individuals that pose a threat to themselves or others, so they can receive appropriate assistance;
(7) keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals and individuals who are not lawfully authorized to possess them;
(8) promote information-sharing that will facilitate the early identification of threats to public safety;
(9) mitigate the effects of violence by promoting preparedness;
(10) provide training for educational professionals, health providers, and others to recognize indicators of the potential for violent behavior;
(11) examine whether there is a connection between violent media and violent behavior;
(12) enable the collection, study, and publication of relevant research; and
(13) expand access to mental health services, with a focus on children and young adults.

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And Now The Senate Gets Into The Act

January 23, 2013 by

Yesterday was the first day that the Senate leadership would allow new bills to be introduced in the 113th Congress. So far five gun control bills have been introduced as well as a stealth bill from Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) that may or may not be a gun control bill. It is my understanding that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) plans to introduce her ban on firearms with cosmetic features she doesn’t like on Thursday.

The text of all of these bills has not been received by the Government Printing Office.

S.2 – Harry Reid (D-NV)
Co-Sponsors:
Sen Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Brown, Sherrod [D-OH] – 1/22/2013
Sen Cantwell, Maria [D-WA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] – 1/22/2013
Sen Durbin, Richard [D-IL] – 1/22/2013
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Lautenberg, Frank R. [D-NJ] – 1/22/2013
Sen Levin, Carl [D-MI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Menendez, Robert [D-NJ] – 1/22/2013
Sen Murphy, Christopher S. [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Rockefeller, John D., IV [D-WV] – 1/22/2013
Sen Schatz, Brian [D-HI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
A bill to reduce violence and protect the citizens of the United States. 


Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

S.22 – Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Co-Sponsors:
Sen Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD] – 1/22/2013
Sen Carper, Thomas R. [D-DE] – 1/22/2013
Sen Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] – 1/22/2013
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Levin, Carl [D-MI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Menendez, Robert [D-NJ] – 1/22/2013
Sen Reed, Jack [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Wyden, Ron [D-OR] – 1/22/2013
A bill to establish background check procedures for gun shows
Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

S.33 – Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Co-Sponsors:
Sen Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD] – 1/22/2013
Sen Carper, Thomas R. [D-DE] – 1/22/2013
Sen Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] – 1/22/2013
Sen Durbin, Richard [D-IL] – 1/22/2013
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Franken, Al [D-MN] – 1/22/2013
Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Harkin, Tom [D-IA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Levin, Carl [D-MI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Menendez, Robert [D-NJ] – 1/22/2013
Sen Murphy, Christopher S. [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Reed, Jack [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
A bill to prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, and for other purposes.
Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

S.34 – Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Co-Sponsors:
Sen Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Durbin, Richard [D-IL] – 1/22/2013
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Levin, Carl [D-MI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Menendez, Robert [D-NJ] – 1/22/2013
Sen Reed, Jack [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
A bill to increase public safety by permitting the Attorney General to deny the transfer of firearms or the issuance of firearms and explosives licenses to known or suspected dangerous terrorists.
Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

S.35 – Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Co-Sponsors:
Sen Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] – 1/22/2013
Sen Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Sen Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Sen Reed, Jack [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
A bill to require face to face purchases of ammunition, to require licensing of ammunition dealers, and to require reporting regarding bulk purchases of ammunition.
Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

S.54 – Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Co-Sponsor:
Sen Durbin, Richard [D-IL] – 1/22/2013
A bill to increase public safety by punishing and deterring firearms trafficking. 
 Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

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Is It Because The Northeast Votes Democratic?

January 5, 2013 by

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Dingy Harry as Rush calls him, really stuck his foot in his mouth today. Discussing the hold-up on the bill approving aid to New York, New Jersey, and other areas impacted by Superstorm Sandy, Reid made the comparison with Hurricane Katrina.

I won’t spoil the surprise. Just listen to the clip below. I’ll let you decide if Reid is an frigging idiot or what.

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Is Harry Reid Greasing The Skids For Andrew Traver?

December 19, 2010 by

According to a post from the NFA Owners Association, it seems that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not scheduled any hearings or votes on the nomination of Andrew Traver to head ATF.

From their post:

“Pinky” Reid is showing his true colors again.
He is stealthily, but very clearly, supporting anti-gun zealot Andrew F. Travers, to become the new head of BATFE. He has to do this by stealth in order to maintain the myth that he is a strong supporter of our RKBA.

Reid has NOT made any real effort to ensure the Traver nomination is voted on before congress adjourns.

This is typical of him.

He will let Traver become a recess appointment, then continue to claim that he “really does” support our RKBA. If anyone complains he will deny all responsibility, probably blaming the republicans for time running out.

Readers here might remember that one of the claims for allowing Reid to remain in office was that he is SENATE MAJORITY LEADER, and a (claimed) supporter of our RKBA. IF he TRULY wanted Traver’s nomination to be scheduled and voted on it would be.

I checked with his DC and local office, asking when a hearing would be held.
They could not give me a direct answer. The D.C. office insisted they did not know, and transferred me to a busy signal. The Carson office promised to send me a written response, which I expect to get several days after the question is moot.

We can let him slide on this, or we can demand that he actually make more than a token effort to REPRESENT US on this!

Contact info:

Senator Harry Reid (D) NV.
Web site: http://reid.senate.gov
Mail: United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-2803
Ph. (202) 224-3542, Fax (202) 224-7327

Carson City – Ph. (775) 882-7343

Reno – Ph. (775) 686-5750

Las Vegas Ph. (702) 388-5020

Rural Mobile – Ph. (775) 772-3905

Using senate rule 14 Reid could easily bring the Travers nomination to a vote before the “Lame Duck” session’s end.

That he is NOT doing so confirms for me that he intends to see ATF headed by an anti-RKBA zealot via “Recess Appointment”, and deny all responsibility for it.

I checked status on this before posting, as of today there is still no hearing scheduled for the Travers appointment.

While this does make some sense and would make it easier for Traver to be a recess appointment, I have to say I doubt that not scheduling a vote on Traver is akin to pushing Traver. Reid has plenty of other things on his agenda before the end of this session that are of greater importance to both Reid and Obama than Andrew Traver. Indeed, Reid has threatened to not recess the Senate in order to get it all in before the new Congress forms in January.

Full hearings in the Judiciary Committee take time for any nomination. Checking the committee’s website, no hearings of any sort have been scheduled for the month of December. They also have a number of judicial nominees that have had their hearings waiting for confirmation.

The last hearings held by the full committee were on November 17th which was the same day that Traver’s nomination was sent to the Senate. The hearings on the 17th were for judicial nominations from May.

Frankly, I hope Harry Reid carries through with his stupid obstinate refusal not to recess because it prevents any recess appointments. Let’s face it, castrating the U.S. military’s nuclear capability is more important to Obama and Reid than Andy Traver.

H/T SayUncle

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NRA is NOT Endorsing Harry Reid

August 28, 2010 by

This statement was posted this afternoon on the NRA-Political Victory Fund site:

Statement From NRA-PVF Chairman Chris W. Cox On The 2010 Nevada U.S. Senate Race

Friday, August 27, 2010

In the coming days and weeks, the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) will be announcing endorsements and candidate ratings in hundreds of federal races, as well as thousands of state legislative races. Unless these announcements are required by the timing of primary or special elections, the NRA-PVF generally does not issue endorsements while important legislative business is pending. The NRA-PVF also operates under a long-standing policy that gives preference to incumbent candidates who have voted with the NRA on key issues, which is explained in more detail here.

The U.S. Senate recently considered a number of issues important to NRA members, including the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Out of respect for the confirmation process, the NRA did not announce its position on Ms. Kagan’s confirmation until the conclusion of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee. Her evasive testimony exacerbated grave concerns we had about her long-standing hostility towards the Second Amendment. As a result, the NRA strongly opposed her confirmation and made it clear at the time that we would be scoring this important vote.

The vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year’s confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.

NRA members and other interested parties are encouraged to visit www.NRAPVF.org for more information as Election Day draws near.

Given that the NRA’s Chris Cox and Wayne LaPierre are about as Washington Insider as it comes, the non-endorsement of Reid is recognition of two things. First, that the membership would rise up in protest if Harry Reid were endorsed. Second is the recognition that the tide against the status quo is so strong that most who get in its way will get wiped out. Just ask Republican incumbents like Robert Bennett, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, and quite probably, Lisa Murkowski.

Charlie Cook of the Cook Report is one of the best political handicappers in Washington. He has called this election a “wave election” akin to the 1994 Republican landslide. I think he is quite accurate in his description of it. When one looks at the number of political outsiders who have taken on the establishment and won by fighting a guerrilla war, it is astounding – and that is just in the primaries to date. The NRA is not an agile organization but it is smart enough to recognize reality when it is staring it in the face. Harry Reid is in trouble and they don’t want to go down with the ship.

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Would Harry Reid Sacrifice Elena Kagan to Get Re-Elected?

July 17, 2010 by

I’ve written about Elena Kagan and her confirmation hearings in the past here and here.

Now comes a story from the American Thinker by Rosslyn Smith that makes the suggestion that Harry Reid could conceivably scuttle the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court in order to save his Senate seat. Harry Reid is in for the fight of his political life with Sharon Angle in Nevada. He even has former supporters reaching out from the grave to urge voters to vote against him.

The complicating factor for Reid is that the National Rifle Association has made Kagan’s confirmation a  “scored” vote.  Smith notes that:

The NRA’s making this a scored vote for their endorsement greatly complicates matters for Democrat Senators defending seats in Arkansas, Colorado, Washington and Wisconsin. Like House Democrats and the deficit ballooning budget that was deemed to be passed, they probably wish the matter would just go away.

Smith argues that Reid is the master of killing a nomination while appearing to move it forward. He did this to Amb. John Bolton and made Majority Leader Bill Frist look the fool in the process. She concludes her article:

It could happen. The wimpiest of the Republicans are also from rural states where gun control is anathema. NRA members could influence them even if there inclination is to give the President his nominee. This time as Majority Leader Reid would be the one looking like a fool for not counting heads ahead of time, but if he thought it would help save his seat? Looking like a fool has seldom been an issue for Harry Reid.

I’ve written my Senators – one a Democrat and the other a Republican. Have you?