A plurality of grassroots Democrats prefer AOC to Pelosi as party leader, according the a new pollYesterday, commenting on the House Dems' absurd impeachment shit-show being orchestrated by Pelosi and Nadler, a former top Capitol Hill staffer, wrote privately that "This is not just a disaster, but is starting to make me question the baseline, fundamental values of our leaders and THEIR commitment to the rule of law. They think this is about elections and popularity; well it isn’t, it’s about Americans all over asking whether anything in the constitution, the rule of law, or any of this matters at all or if it’s all just window dressing... and you know what, that’s depressing and dangerous. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but at this point I feel like these folks need to PROVE to me that they give one iota of shit about all the lines I’ve been fed about American democracy since the 5th grade."I agree and there's no reason to not go on to discuss the impeachment shit-show he was commenting on. But Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer already did that-- and very well-- at Politico. So let's apply it to something else festering in Congress: the same game that decrepit old Pelosi and her craven leadership team are playing with assault weapons.She's got Dave Cicilline's sales ban, H.R. 1296, bottled up in the Judiciary Committee. All but 25 Democrats in the House have signed on as co-sponsors. Pelosi and Cheri Bustos haven't. There's even a Republican co-sponsor. Several Republicans have said they will vote for it if it comes to the House but won't co-sponsor it. Although there are hard core NRA Democrats who will oppose it to their deaths-- like Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY), Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA), Ron Kind (New Dem-WI), Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ), Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR), when Pelosi whines that she can't allow it to be brought to the floor until there are 218 co-sponsors, she's being completely disingenuous. In other words, she has absorbed Trumpism's #1 tenet of governance: Lie with alacrity and you'll get away with it.Here's the math: 210 Democratic co-sponsors + Peter King (the Republican co-sponsor) + Pelosi + Bustos + non-co-sponsors who will vote yes if Pelosi says to-- Mike Thompson (Blue Dog-CA), Lauren Underwood (D-IL), Terri Sewell (New Dem-AZ), Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) + even ONE of the Republicans who will vote for it, say Michael Turner, former mayor of Dayton, whose daughter was nearly shot in the recent GOP/NRA massacre and who publicly said he'd vote for Cicilline's bill, or Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) or Chris Smith (R-NJ) or Fred Upton (R-MI) or Brian Mast (R-FL) would not just take the score to the 218 she says she needs, but to 219 a vote over what she needs.The background checks bill that passed the House last February, H.R. 8, only had 2 Democratic NO votes (Collin Peterson and Jared Golden) and it had 8 Republicans who voted for it:
• Vern Buchanan (R-FL)• Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)• Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)• Will Hurd (R-TX)• Peter King (R-NY)• Brian Mast (R-FL)• Chris Smith (R-NJ)• Fred Upton (R-MI)
John Katko, who represents a blue district centered around Syracuse, New York and sometimes gets away with calling himself a "moderate," was away when the vote was called but he later issued a statement that had he been in DC, he would have voted against the bill.Jeff Van Drew is an NRA Blue DogWhat's Pelosi's motivation for not whipping the assault weapons sales ban and passing it? NY Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg figured it out. "As Democrats make an aggressive push for new gun control legislation," she wrote, "they have made a calculated decision to stop short of pursuing their most ambitious goal: an assault weapons ban."
The overwhelming majority of House Democrats-- 211, seven shy of the 218 needed for passage-- are co-sponsoring legislation to ban military-style semiautomatic weapons, similar to the ban in effect from 1994 to 2004. But some centrist Democrats remain skittish about any proposal that keeps firearms from law-abiding citizens-- a frequent charge against Democrats by Republicans and gun rights groups-- making any such ban politically risky for moderates in Trump-friendly districts. In the Senate, it draws less support.The split reveals just how complicated gun politics remain inside the Democratic Party, even as mass shootings are terrorizing the nation and the Twitter hashtag #DoSomething has captured the mounting public demands for Congress to act.On the presidential campaign trail, Democrats like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. are rallying behind an assault weapons ban, and Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from Texas, has gone so far as to call for a mandatory government program to buy back the weapons of war. But on Capitol Hill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, have barely breathed a word about reviving the ban.Even Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who sponsored the 1994 assault weapons ban and is one of its most ardent defenders, did not raise the issue when she spoke about gun safety alongside Mr. Schumer on Tuesday afternoon. “We don’t have the votes to pass it,” she later explained. [She was lying, either consciously or because Pelosi fed her a line of bullshit.]“Let’s be honest,” said Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, the sponsor of the current assault weapons measure, who described himself as a “huge proponent” of the ban. “Every other bill that we’ve done tries to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. This is the one piece of legislation that keeps a particular weapon out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. A lot of people have enormous objections to that.”...The push for background checks instead of an assault weapons ban makes political sense for Democrats, who see it as a winning issue. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found 89 percent of Americans in favor of universal background checks. While a majority also supported an assault weapons ban, the support was much thinner-- just 56 percent.The 1994 law, which passed as part of a broader crime bill championed by Mr. Biden, then a senator, banned the sale of 19 specific weapons that have the features of guns used by the military, including semiautomatic rifles and certain types of shotguns and handguns.It also outlawed magazines that could hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, while allowing people who already had such weapons to keep them. But it had a sunset provision, and Congress refused to renew it when it expired in 2004, in part because Democrats were nervous that it could cost them re-election.The politics have shifted since then, especially after a summer of deadly mass shootings.Some Democrats in surprising corners of the country have also embraced a ban, even though the political reality is that Mr. Trump would never sign such a measure.Two moderate Democrats who beat Republicans for House seats last year-- Representatives Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Jason Crow of Colorado-- spoke out last month in favor of a ban, with an opinion article in USA Today. Both are military veterans, and Mr. Crow ran on an aggressive platform of combating gun violence.Even some Republicans have signed on to the idea. Among them is Representative Michael R. Turner, Republican of Ohio, whose district includes Dayton, where a gunman killed nine people outside a bar last month. Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida, where a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland galvanized a youth movement for gun safety, also supports a ban.But for centrists like Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Kendra Horn of Oklahoma-- both of whom also flipped seats in districts Mr. Trump won-- supporting an assault weapons ban could be politically toxic.Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, who enjoys the backing of the National Rifle Association and is facing a primary challenge from the left, does not support a ban.“I am for reasonable gun reform,” Mr. Cuellar said in a recent interview. “But I’m not going to take guns away from people like they want to do.”
The bill does not advocate "taking guns away from people." Cuellar always uses Republican Party/Fox News talking points to frame his reactionary agenda. He's one of the worst scumbags in the Democratic Party and what good is Pelosi if she lets garbage like him-- and worthless coward Kendra Horn-- dictate which votes are allowed on the floor and which votes have to be killed in committee? Democrats should remove Pelosi as Speaker before she does irreparable damage to the party's chances to win in 2020.Eva Putzova is the progressive Democrat running against an incumbent-- former Republican state legislator Tom O'Halleran, currently pretending to be a semi-Democrat (as a Blue Dog) and, of course, vehemently against banning the sale of assault weapons, something Eva is just as vehemently in favor of. "Who," she asked, "benefits from the assault weapon sales? It’s not the people of this country but corporations who sell them. I can’t imagine being a Representative, seeing reports on mass shootings terrorizing our communities almost daily and doing nothing. Standing on the sideline and refusing to co-sponsor the assault weapons sales is a total failure of leadership."
