The gun measure failed because of dumb filibuster rules...

[DonViejo]

Minority of useless undemocratic legislative body blocks modest gun control legislation

The gun measure failed because of dumb filibuster rules, not Joe Manchin's supposed "lack of confidence"

A minority of senators voted against a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun sales — a proposal that was widely acknowledged to fall well short of the sort of gun control necessary to actually curb America’s shocking amount of gun crime, but one that was also determined to be the strongest possible measure with any hope of passing Congress — and that minority “won” the vote, because the Senate has weird made-up nonsense rules. Four Democratic senators, from some of America’s least populous states, voted with the winning minority.

Those Democrats were Heidi Heitkamp (N.D. — a state that should not be a separate state from South Dakota), Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (big icy pool of oil by Canada) and Mark Pryor (Ark.). Baucus, Begich and Pryor are up for reelectiion next year. Heitkamp’s excuse is that the entire population of her state is old white gun nuts. Liberals may call for those senators to be punished. Democrats will respond, correctly, that if those senators lose primaries to more liberal candidates, Republicans will win those seats. The correct response, as always, is to eliminate the U.S. Senate.

There were two conflicting arguments against the bill: One, that it was an unreasonable and unconstitutional infringement on gun rights, and two, that it wouldn’t have prevented the worst of our most recent mass shootings. The first line isn’t true, even by the standards of our current Supreme Court’s understanding of the Second Amendment. The second is a decent argument for much stricter gun laws.

BuzzFeed’s Ruby Cramer and Evan McMorris Santoro have a piece up blaming conservative Democrat Joe Manchin for the failure of the background check measure he sponsored with Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey. Manchin apparently caused the bill to fail with an inept media strategy. He accidentally told everyone about a meeting with the NRA, and he was insufficiently optimistic on “Morning Joe,” and that is why gun control failed.

Full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/18/minority_of_useless_undemocratic_legislative_body_blocks_modest_gun_control_legislation/

[awoke_in_2003]

1. Lay it on Harry Reid...

the spineless, ineffective simp.

[bemildred]

3. +1. He's got to go, along with a lot of other "leaders". nt

[apnu]

2. As far as I'm concerned, the "lack of confidence" comes from...

... Congress' inability to do what over 90% of America wants.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Blame DiFi, Barbara Boxer, Patrick Leahy...

...they were the ones who didn't support the talking filibuster rule revisions. Reid can't force Senators to vote...he didn't have close to the 51 Democrats on board to make the change. So please direct your ire at the entire party...afraid that they'll lose the majority in 2015.

The ugly truth is that the NRA has the House and Senate by the shorthairs...the pocketbook. The only time public opinion matters in the weeks before an election...the rest of the time a majority only pay attention to those who write the checks...and the bigger the check the more they listen. As long as we have a political system that goes to the highest bidder the massacres of innocent people will continue...