BEWARE of McCain
By Weldon Clark
McCain breathed new life into the Juvenile Justice Bill's antigun amendments, after it had been KILLED. McCain and 4 other moderate Republicans said they would vote for the Lautenberg gun show ban bill unless the Republican Leadership brought up a bill. They did and it passed the Senate.
McCain told Neal Knox and the present Second Vice President of NRA that he would never forget what NRA had done in the 1994 election. He then cosponsored the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance bill. This bill would prevent all independent groups such as NRA, Christian Coalition, Right to Life and other conservative groups from doing effective election campaigns. They could not report the voting records of candidates 60 days prior to the election. ALL elections would be tilted toward anti-gun liberals.
The ratings of the Arizona Rifle & Pistol Association are Bauer, Keys and Forbes all A Bush a B McCain a C minus.
McCain is the most liberal of the candidates and a US Senator who lives and breathes in Washington DC.
Nations Most Ant-Gun newspaper fawns over McCain
THREE MONTHS ago, George W. Bush seemed to be coasting toward victory in the Republican primaries, whereas the contest between Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley looked as though it might tip either way. Yesterday's vote in New Hampshire roughly confirmed the Democratic half of that prognosis. But the Republican result shows that politics remains delightfully surprising. The combined ranks of pundits and pollsters and big-money donors could neither predict nor prevent John McCain's striking victory.
New Hampshire has a way of favoring mavericks who go on to defeat in subsequent primaries, so it would be wrong to suggest that Mr. McCain has attained front-runner status. This is even truer this year than previously, since Mr. McCain got a major boost from independent voters, who are allowed to take part in New Hampshire's Republican primary but not in those of many other states. Moreover, Mr. Bush retains a daunting advantage in organization and money.
Even so, the New Hampshire result does show that Mr. Bush is defeat able. The Bush campaign had the backing of the New Hampshire establishment and spent much more than Mr. McCain could on ads in the state. But Mr. Bush did poorly anyway, not only among independents but also among Republican voters. His loss, combined with the disappearance of his lead over Mr. Gore in hypothetical poll match-ups, tarnishes the image of a sure winner.
Whether or not Mr. Bush recovers, Mr. McCain's win yesterday holds lessons. It shows that the New Hampshire primary is marvelously open to modestly financed challengers, who can build support voter by voter in town halls and school gyms. What's more, it shows that insurgents can skip Iowa's much less open caucuses and still win New Hampshire. Alone among the major candidates, Mr. McCain did not besmirch himself by pandering to Iowa's farm vote.
The McCain victory also boosts the issues he campaigned on. Campaign finance reform has been Mr. McCain's favorite crusade, as well as the most powerful contrast with the antireform Mr. Bush. Mr. McCain's proposed tax cut is small compared with the Bush plan, but New Hampshire's supposedly anti-tax voters backed him--and his fiscal moderation--nonetheless. And the McCain victory confirms that voters care about character. The candidate declared at every opportunity that "spinning is lying." He offered a combination of honor and honesty. After the duplicities and manipulations of recent years, New Hampshire warmed to that.
Advocates made it clear that it was a "gun control" vote, with much of their commentary focussed on the evils of guns rather than the technical merits of the amendment. Levin stressed the support of Handgun Control Inc., the Violence Policy Center and the National League of Cities.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) used the opportunity to push his gun show background check bill and praised Sturm, Ruger for prohibiting its distributors from selling to retailers who sell at gun shows.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pointed out that the amendment targets lawful, responsible gun makers rather than gun misusers.
Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho) said the amendment was intended to make bankruptcy law "politically correct."
If you received this as a forward and wish to join please send: E-MAil to listserver@frostbit.com with the following text in the message body: SUBSCRIBE 2nd-Amendment-News
We have had a computer error. If you want to be removed send a message to the list administrator, send E-mail to luz.clark@prodigy.net
If you know anyone who would appreciate these alerts, please let us know and we'll enroll them on a trial basis.
Also, feel free to forward our alerts.