If being a parliamentarian and former Green Party member weren't enough, I just got a press release from the Baucus campaign that the NRA just endorsed Baucus.
From the release:
"Senator Baucus is a true champion of our Second Amendment freedom and hunting heritage," said Cox. "I'm proud to be with him today and announce his NRA-PVF endorsement. We look forward to continuing to work together on behalf of Montana gun owners and sportsmen.
"Max's support for our gun rights and hunting heritage often puts him in the minority - sometimes within the Senate chamber and sometimes within his own party, but that does not stop him from doing what is right," continued Cox.
Are there other endorsements for statewide races from the NRA? Or is this it?
During the last election, I wrote a post about the NRA backing Conrad Burns over Jon Tester, even though Tester had the better record on the Second Amendment. (Notably Tester - like the NRA - opposed the Patriot Act, which Conrad Burns supported, defended, and apparently bathed with.) The implication then was that the NRA is a group that supports the Republican party, not gun rights.
And now the NRA faces another choice: gun control or Republican. Today the organization held a conference with the Republican presidential candidates seeking out their endorsement. One of the candidates seeking this endorsement is the front runner, Rudi Giuliani. Only thing, Giuliani has a less-than-stellar record on gun rights, to put it mildly:
But even as the former New York mayor strives to burnish his Second Amendment credentials at the gathering in Washington, a panel of federal judges in his home town will be hearing arguments on the lawsuit that Giuliani filed seven years ago aimed at punishing the nation's gun manufacturers for violent crimes involving firearms.
Announcing the lawsuit in 2000, then-Mayor Giuliani wrote in his weekly column about issues facing the city that "this is an industry which profits from the suffering of innocent people. The lawsuit is intended to end the free pass that the gun industry has enjoyed for a very long time, which has resulted in too many avoidable deaths."
He called the lawsuit "an aggressive step towards restoring accountability to an industry that profits from the suffering of others."
Oops!
The only problem is that Giuliani is the front-runner among Republican presidential candidates. It's quite possible he takes the nomination. So, it's up to the NRA: support the Republican, or stick to its mission and values. (Or maybe they'll just be charmed by the phone call he took while on stage.)
Republican County Attorney Dennis Paxinos apparently had to set the story straight that the "innocent" woman nearly arrested for carrying a firearm was actually high on meth and threatening a maintenance worker.
By the way -- if you're pissed off about those mailers the GOP issued, you can donate to the Democrats targeted by the pieces. Doug Cordier, JP Pomnichowski, and Julie French represent swing districts. That's why they were targeted. Donate to their campaigns -- make sure that the GOP isn't rewarded for using bullshit mail pieces over half-baked issues defending meth addicts.
