Senate aides: Gabby Giffords group helped broker deal on expanded background checks
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. . . We Are So Fortunate and Blessed To Have Gabby Giffords On Our Side Working For Us
The Washington Post ?@washingtonpost 9h
Senate aides: Gabby Giffords group helped broker deal on expanded background checks http://wapo.st/10Sz3yi
____ Senate staffers familiar with the (months-long negotiations over how to expand the nation’s gun background check program) confirmed the Toomey staff’s accounting of events, some of whom said that the involvement of Giffords and her new group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, proved critical to the Manchin-Toomey talks.
A staffer with Giffords’s group met with Toomey’s staffers about two weeks ago. In the behind-the-scenes meeting, the staffer realized that there was common ground between Toomey and Manchin because the Toomey staffers were open to closing the “gunshow loophole” and amenable to expanding background checks to cover Internet gun sales, according to aides familiar with the talks.
The Giffords staffer approached Manchin aides, told them of the meeting and suggested that they reach out to Toomey and all sit down together. The Giffords staffers stayed in touch with both offices, in an effort to bring the senators together on expanded background checks.
“They really ignited the fire,” a senior Senate aide familiar with the talks said of the Giffords group.
“What made the Giffords group effective is that they are in the sweet spot that is not ideologically driven, but instead fact-driven,” said the senior aide. “Their approach is to come from the middle which allows them to have credibility on both sides. There is no way a far left group will have any influence with Republicans. And a far right group won’t have any influence with Democrats.”
read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/04/11/how-pat-toomey-joined-the-background-check-talks/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
Greg Sargent ?@ThePlumLineGS 6m
ICYMI: Gabby Giffords to return to Hill and attend event with John Boehner (which should get interesting) : http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/11/what-will-john-boehner-say-to-gabrielle-giffords/ …
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