Good for President Obama, and his fellow Democrats. Reuters, via HuffPo:
HARTFORD, Conn., April 8 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged Americans on Monday to pressure a reluctant Congress to pass new gun control legislation – one of his top domestic policy priorities – as he traveled to Connecticut, where December’s school massacre took place.
Initial momentum for tougher U.S. gun control laws sought by Obama after the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown has stalled in Congress in the face of fierce lobbying by gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.
Obama, speaking at the University of Hartford, said that date changed everything for families of the 20 children and six adults killed at Sandy Hook elementary school.
“I know many of you in Newtown wondered if the rest of us would live up to the promises we made in those dark days … once the television trucks left, once the candles flickered out, once the teddy bears were gathered up,” Obama was to say in prepared remarks. “We will not walk away from the promise we’ve made.”…
Last week, Obama gave a speech in Denver trying to rally support for gun control, touting a new state law in Colorado – scene of two of the deadliest gun massacres in American history – as “a model of what’s possible.”
The president’s speech on Monday will be followed up by a White House event on Tuesday with Vice President Joe Biden and law enforcement officials. Biden also is due to speak about gun control on Thursday on the MSNBC cable TV network.
First lady Michelle Obama is set to address gun control during a visit on Wednesday to Chicago, which has faced a spree of gun violence. (Editing by Alistair Bell and Xavier Briand)
(video at the link, but I can’t get it to embed without blocking text)
And furthermore, from ABC News: “Reid Says Republicans ‘Seem Afraid’ of Gun Control Debate“:
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had some tough words for Republicans threatening to filibuster gun control legislation the full Senate will start working on this week: “Shame on them.”
“Senate Republicans seem afraid to even engage in this debate,” Reid said on the Senate floor of the Republicans threatening to filibuster the gun control legislation.
“The least Republicans owe the parents of these 20 little babies who are murdered at Sandy Hook is a thoughtful debate about who whether stronger laws could have saved their little girls and boys,” Reid said. “The least Republicans owe them is a vote.”…
“My Republican colleagues went so far as to send me a letter saying we will agree to nothing, there will be no debate, there will be nothing,” Reid said mocking the filibuster threat. “We want you to do zero on anything dealing with stricter gun measures. They don’t even want to let us vote on this. … There is simply no reason for this blatant obstruction except the fear of considering antiviolence proposals in full view.”
Reid said every idea for gun control legislation should get a vote, a signal that he might have an open amendment process for the gun control legislation being considered on the Senate floor this week.
“Every idea should be debated and every issue should get a vote,” Reid said. “From better mental health treatment, more secure schools, stronger background checks, ban on assault weapons, the size of magazines or clips and other issues should get a vote. There are strong feelings and deep disagreements about some of these measures, but every one of these measures deserves a vote, a yes or no. No hiding, no running from an issue that has captivated America.”…
Sure, at least some of these proposals (like the assault weapon ban) are bound to lose. But cockroaches hate daylight, so it’s time to expose the NRA-fearing Congresscritters for the cowards they are. The 2014 races are going to be fusterclucks regardless of whether our side stands up for what we know is true or hunkers down in a preemptive crouch, so let’s shine a light while we can.
Groucho48
This should be a good test. One of the big complaints of Obama-haters is that we would have a public option, we would be out of Guantanamo, we wouldn’t have had to worry about the debt ceiling, etc., etc., if only Obama had used his bully pulpit.
Well, here is a bill where Obama is using the bully pulpit. Let’s see how effective that is. This is an issue with around 90% approval from voters. If the bully pulpit doesn’t work here, I would say that means it isn’t nearly as big a deal as Obama-haters make it to be.
Redshirt
Both sides do it, also too.
David Koch
History’s greatest monster
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/07VsetjfDd9aY/650x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/04FZbV383ZfpB/650x.jpg
trnc
The least Reid could do is dispense with the strongly worded statements about what republicans should do and actually do what he has the power to do.
Patricia Kayden
@Groucho48: Some gun control proposals may pass the Senate but I’m not sure about the Republican-controlled House.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Patricia Kayden: Tweety made an interesting point, I think. Part of the reason the Senate wants to stop this from coming to a vote is because a lot of House R’s would find this vote really hard to explain.
RubberCrutch
Admonishment is cheap. Arm-twisting is better. Nuclear option better still.
RubberCrutch
@efgoldman:
I think he could avoid giving away filibuster reform next time and tell his caucus to knock it off with the “Gang of N” bipartisanship already.
lol
@RubberCrutch:
Reid can’t unilaterally end the filibuster. There’s a lot of otherwise liberal Democrats who loooooove tradition and procedure and fondly remember the bygone days of bipartisanship and best beds.
Fortunately, there’s fewer of them every Congress and more Democrats realize the filibuster is a tool to resist progress, not protect it. I think we’re still 2-3 votes away from being able to do it. We should definitely have the votes after 2016.
jshooper
@David Koch:
If Leni Riefenstahl posted on Balloon Juice…this is what it’d look like.
/ Greenwald
danimal
I like the tact Reid is taking with the GOP and gun safety legislation. Calling them gutless wonders, afraid to take a hard vote, must hit them in their machismo.
With apologies to all cats, calling the Republicans pu$$ies is fairly satisfying, and appeals to the GOP Neanderthal base (apologies to Neanderthals as well).
OzoneR
@Groucho48:
So you say now.
Mark my words, this bill fails, and you’ll have a cavalcade of Monday Morning Quarterbackers saying he never used the bully pulpit.
RubberCrutch
@lol:
lol: Reid said he was in favor of tough filibuster reform, but then he wasn’t. I know the SML may not be as powerful as the position was 50 years ago, but I wonder if that’s a weakening of the position or a succession of weak personalities who have held the position over those years. LBJ had more powerful techniques than scolding in his toolbox.
OzoneR
@RubberCrutch:
The biggest of which was a much better electorate
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@OzoneR: and a lot of others that we would today call massive corruption
cat48
Obama gave some of the Sandy Hook relatives a ride to DC on Airforce 1 after the rally. They plan to Lobby the Senators themselves. At least 14 Gop say they will filibuster.
That’s really brave of the survivors. I’m not sure I could do that this soon after losing a child. They just want a Vote. I hope they get it.
Talabama
Any of this stupidity passes and 2014 is going to be a repeat of 1994 for the Democratic party.
Legislation passed in the wake of a horrible but anomalous tragedy based on an irrational fear of said event is rarely beneficial. Remember the PATRIOT act?
OzoneR
@Talabama:
Well, at least it won’t be a repeat of 2010.
askew
@RubberCrutch:
It’s the lack of earmarks. LBJ basically bribed Senators to keep them in line and could threaten to take away $$ from their states if they didn’t vote the right way.
RinaX
Which 50 senators were publicly committed to backing the bigger reform, only to have the rug pulled from beneath them by Reid at the last minute?
fuckwit
@RinaX: Exactly. There is a snake, AND IT’S COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE! It’s the damn Dems who are the problem. They don’t want to end the filibuster, really, even when it screws them over collectively, because their egos are so huge individually, and that’s what they’re working for.
Take Dianne Feinstein (please!). Huge fucking ego. Probably second only to Chuck Schumer, oops, guess what, both Dems. And Ben Nelson, Lincoln, you know the drill. The D side has just as many egomaniacs as the R side.
Senators have enormous egos, regardless of party or politics, and the filibuster is the avenue by which they can strut their ego stuff. One Senator, by even threatening to filibuster, can shut down the entire Senate. They LOVE that shit. They don’t want it to end. The longer they’ve been in the Senate, the more they fall in love with their own power.
Reid can’t do shit without those 50 votes. And he will as soon as he has them.
Paul in KY
@Groucho48: I think these are more the ‘Obama Whiners’. The ‘Obama Haters’ generally have more basic reasons/theories/delusions for their hatred.
Paul in KY
@OzoneR: I think LBJ also had a better handle on individual peccadillios each Senator may have had.
He compiled extensive dossiers on all.
brendancalling
@trnc:
Harry Reid is doing exactly what he has to do, in terms of protecting the status quo.
That’s what he’s there for. Same with the rest of the Senate. The place where good bills go to die.
Gex
@OzoneR: And a much better media environment.
@cat48: I assume they have no idea the kind of scrutiny their countertops are about to endure. But the more the TeaParty reveals their inner bully, the more they alienate. I assume many of these parents were R voters previously. I wonder how that will be going forward.