NRA Threatens To Punish Senators Who Vote For Sotomayor… No One Listens
Posted on 02. Aug, 2009 by Shera Crossan in Events, Gun Control, Politics, Shera Crossan, Top Stories
National Rifle Association’s threat to punish senators who vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been met with a shrug by Democrats from conservative-leaning states and some Republicans who are breaking with their party to support her. The gun rights group is used to getting its way by spooking lawmakers about the political consequences of defying its wishes. But it never before has weighed in on a Supreme Court confirmation battle. It was cautious about breaking that pattern, and it looks like a losing a fight to defeat President Barack Obama’s first pick for the court.
Sotomayor is expected to easily win confirmation in a vote this coming week that could deflate the long-accepted truism in Washington that you don’t cross the NRA.
Voting “yes” will include A-plus-rated and NRA-endorsed Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and his fellow Montanan, A-rated Sen. Jon Tester, as well as A-rated and NRA-endorsed Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the only GOP leader to break with the rest of this party to back Sotomayor.
That’s not to say that the NRA’s late decision to wade in hasn’t had an impact. Many Republicans who were considered possible “yes” votes for Sotomayor – including Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, Georgia Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, and Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison – have come out against her after the NRA’s announcement, citing gun rights concerns as an important reason. More
The NRA went “soft” years ago.
They have a jinked election system for their board, very much like the nation’s. There’’s a “nominating committee” that functions very much like the cemented-in 2 party system.
Clinton harassed them into softness.
The have this unpalatable habit of talking to members as if they were children. The NRA member is subject to a blizzard of fund raising appeals.
I am a life member but I no longer contribute. I do contribute to:
Gun Owners of America
The Firearm Coalition
@ a244
Spot on! I remember how Wayne Lapierre was shot down on numerous occasions for being “too extreme.” For all his rhetoric Heston was limp wristed in his approach and I don’t think the NRA will ever recover from his leadership. From what I understand the Gun Owners of America should be the organization to show loyalty to.
The Firearms Coalition sent me a list of senators & how they voted on “pistol reciprocity”.
Of course turncoats Hillebrand and Specter voted against. The reader shouldn’t get fixated on them, they’re only the tip-of-the-iceberg. They’re just two of the repulsive no-principle critters our cemented-in-place mock election system occasionally vomits up.
The tiny dinky “Firearms Coalition” could find the resources to send me this information.
The gigantic NRA didn’t see fit to inform me.
The lawyers have a saying “res ipsa loquitur” which means “the thing speaks for itself”.