I'm not a huge fan of engaging in stupid campaign trash talk and "gotcha" moments...except, well, I saw this letter from Gary Marbut in the Missoula Independent:
Texas legislator Dr. Suzanne Gratia-Hupp said, "How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual...as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
Every election cycle we see candidates with marginal commitment to gun owners doing a masquerade intended to deceive voters....
Don't get sucked in by the photo op candidates who borrow a shotgun for a campaign photo. In Montana we call that "All hat and no cows." Check candidates out carefully or trust MSSA and the NRA to have done a good job evaluating candidates for you. As Dr. Gratia-Hupp implies, a candidate's true attitude about your gun rights is a litmus for much else about that candidate.
The letter's a swipe at progressive gun rights groups that identify access to wilderness as a gun issue - something Marbut and the NRA don't care much about because...well...because those groups aren't Republican. Whatever. We'll get back to that. But this letter immediately made me think of this:
At first glance it's simply a campaign photo of Roy in hunting garb, holding some dead geese. The impression we are supposed to get is that Roy is a sportsman, a big bird-hunter, who will defend the rights of other sportsmen, by wearing his camouflage, his boots and his dorky looking outfit. The photo is now on his state campaign website, where he uses it to imply his "conservative" hunting and gun and outdoor credentials....
But alas for poor Roy, there is an unfortunate fact that has been revealed: Roy never hunted in Montana in recorded history (as far back as hunting license information is obtainable, which is to 1989) until 2006 when, coincidentally, he began preparing for his Governor's run and also faced a rare Senate challenge, from Margie McDonald who had big Dem support.
Now, frankly, I don't give a rat's *ss whether Roy Brown hunts or not, and I'm not getting all light-headed mulling over Kendall Van Dyk's upcoming You Tube video of him gutting and skinning an elk. Yes, I realize that a candidate hunts shows an appreciation for Montana wilderness, etc & co, tho' I think an avid hiker or rock climber or angler would feel much the same way. And doesn't everyone in Montana have a relationship to wilderness in one way or another? I mean, you have to if you life in the state.
But Gary Marbut cares! So, we'd expect him to endorse, not Roy Brown, the borrower of shotguns for photo-ops, but the guy who actually uses firearms, right? You'd be wrong! Marbut endorses the poseur over the hunter.
Why? Because Roy Brown is a Republican, and the Montana Shooting Sports Association, like the NRA is essentially a Republican PAC.
Don't believe me? Consider the NRA 2006 endorsing and fundraising on behalf of Conrad Burns. That was despite Tester's perfect record on the Second Amendment and his support of hunter-friendly conservation issues and opposition to the Patriot Act, unlike the Missouri auctioneer. Tester was clearly more in alignment with the NRA than Burns.
But Burns was a Republican. |
