Bipartisan gun control amendment fails in the Senate

[Badger]

Good point. Obama's blame in this measure's defeat is clearly second only to Congressional Democrats.

[Old Man Svensson]

Does anybody think for a moment that the GOP cares one iota about gun crime? Anyone? It couldn't be any clearer that they don't. They don't give a crap about victims. They don't give a crap about people with cancer who can't afford to see a doctor. They don't give a crap if children have food tonight. They don't give a crap about anything except further enriching the already obscenely wealthy. And by any means necessary. And anybody who hasn't figured this out must be blind deaf and dumb.

Who is "the GOP"?

Such a mature response. I have a question for you: if "the GOP", as you so helpfully, nebulously put it, didn't care about gun crime, then why is public support for background checks effectively 90%? I ask this as someone who disagrees with the Republican Party and its voters on basically everything else: why is that the case?

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Good point. Obama's blame in this measure's defeat is clearly second only to Congressional Democrats.

Huh?  I never blamed Obama for this measure's defeat, if that's what you're getting at.  I'm not blaming congressional Democrats in general, either.  I'm blaming certain Democrats for not helping pass this measure in spite of the fact that an overwhelming majority of the population agrees with them on it.  It still wouldn't have been enough to overcome the filibuster, but the fact that there was bipartisan opposition to the bill doesn't help the cause.  It was the same argument the Republicans used against the health care bill.

[publicunofficial]

I've been thinking about who needs to get on board in order for this bill to pass, and I've come up with a few names:


-Heidi Heitkamp - Sources indicate that she won't vote yes until there are already 57 to 59 "Yes" votes already on board.

-Kelly Ayotte - Taking a lot of heat from her state for not voting "Yes" the first time, might change her tune to appease New Hampshire voters.

-Max Baucus - Might vote Yes considering how unpopular he is among Democrats right now, but I doubt it seeing how badly that might play out in Montana.

-Dean Heller - From a blue state, doesn't have to worry about re-election for a while

-Jeff Flake - Personal friendship with Giffords/Kelly, might be convinced by McCain, could take some heat from this story:

http://gawker.com/5995134/sen-flake-promises-gun-control-reform-to-aurora-victims-mom-flakes

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[Badger]

Good point. Obama's blame in this measure's defeat is clearly second only to Congressional Democrats.

Huh?  I never blamed Obama for this measure's defeat, if that's what you're getting at.  I'm not blaming congressional Democrats in general, either.  I'm blaming certain Democrats for not helping pass this measure in spite of the fact that an overwhelming majority of the population agrees with them on it.  It still wouldn't have been enough to overcome the filibuster, but the fact that there was bipartisan opposition to the bill doesn't help the cause.  It was the same argument the Republicans used against the health care bill.

No, I was referring to muon's post that more thn implied obama's lack of lbj syle vote counting skills was a mjor contributor to the measure's defeat.

[muon2]

Good point. Obama's blame in this measure's defeat is clearly second only to Congressional Democrats.

Huh?  I never blamed Obama for this measure's defeat, if that's what you're getting at.  I'm not blaming congressional Democrats in general, either.  I'm blaming certain Democrats for not helping pass this measure in spite of the fact that an overwhelming majority of the population agrees with them on it.  It still wouldn't have been enough to overcome the filibuster, but the fact that there was bipartisan opposition to the bill doesn't help the cause.  It was the same argument the Republicans used against the health care bill.

No, I was referring to muon's post that more thn implied obama's lack of lbj syle vote counting skills was a mjor contributor to the measure's defeat.

If a president (or governor, or mayor) expects a signature issue to pass over strong objections, they have to be willing to use their office to sway the necessary votes. That's not to say that leadership doesn't have office to use in a similar fashion, they do. I read Dowd as suggesting my first statement has bearing on the issue. I agree and point out that the President lacked experience on either executive or leadership posts, and that could explain the President's behavior as seen by Dowd.

I think to your point, the Senate leadership does offer another means to push for votes. But if in fact the executive was not also pushing effectively, it can only reduce the potential that one would get from both Senate leadership and the President working in concert.