Team 26 rides to DC in support of gun responsibility laws,
video here
NY Times:
Drawing on the lessons from battles in the 1980s and ’90s over the Brady Bill, which failed in Congress several times before ultimately passing, gun control supporters believe they can prevail by working on a two-pronged strategy. First, they are identifying senators who might be willing to change their votes and support a background check system with fewer loopholes.
Second, they are looking to build a national campaign that would better harness overwhelming public support for universal background checks — which many national polls put at near 90 percent approval — to pressure lawmakers...
“It’s not a question of really changing their minds for or against this policy,” one of the meeting’s participants said. “It’s demonstrating that it’s safe to do the right thing and politically unsafe not to.”
One of the more annoying aspects of a marathon are "expert" commentators discussing the first 500 yards as if it's the end of the race. Real experts know better. You can argue about the exact number, state or national, but something as popular as background checks will eventually pass. Politicians are afraid to vote yes. They need to be afraid to vote no.
The pressure campaign is evidently already starting to take its toll, the vice president added, because several senators have confided to him that they are feeling the backlash from constituents.
Duh. When politicians misread their constituents, they pay a price. That doesn't mean each one. All politics is local. For example, Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has made a serious mistake by being the only New Englander to vote no. Not yet clear that Mark Begich (D-AK) or Mark Pryor (D-AR) has to worry as much, though that's evolving, too.
More politics and policy below the fold.
National Journal:
The political M.O. for most red-state Democrats, especially those up for reelection next year, is to avoid issues that make them look liberal.
But after last week’s failed gun-control vote in the Senate, in which a handful of moderate Democrats defected from their party, a coalition of progressive groups is warning those at-risk incumbents to start avoiding votes that make them look too conservative. If not, these liberal activists say their support, enthusiasm, and contributions will dwindle—or, in a worst case for Democrats, they’ll mount a potentially damaging primary challenge.
Greg Sargent:
Now for the bad news for gun reformers. Fifty nine percent say they could vote for a candidate who disagrees with them on guns. Only 19 percent have contacted a public official on the issue; only 15 percent have given money to an organization involved in it. All of this again suggests — as Republicans have calculated — that this isn’t a motivating issue.
While this doesn’t matter in Pennsylvania, given Toomey’s support, that is also borne out in national polling, and speaks directly to the larger challenge here. As I keep telling you, now is the time for the gun control forces to prove that they can extract a real political price for Senators’ No votes.
Jennifer Rubin:
The Republican Party can remain a Ronald Reagan historical society, or it can try to endure as a force in national politics. But it can’t do both. The choice matters greatly, for there is no guarantee that the GOP will retain its ability to win national elections or that conservatism has a future as a national governing philosophy.
The modern GOP has issues. Not just D partisans think so.
Timothy Egan:
The 102-hour sprint from the moment two bombs went off in Boston to the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, Mass., should be capsulized and sent to every law enforcement academy. Tireless culling of video images, apt use of tips and technology, and quick action by a fleet of cops showed both the risk and the range of good police work.
By contrast, we are reminded this month of the terrible price of bad police work. Amanda Knox’s book about her ordeal as a prisoner of coincidence for a murder in Italy and a documentary about five innocent teenagers framed for the Central Park rape case present a blueprint of official malpractice.
Andrew Rosenthal:
Actually, neither brother immigrated from Chechnya. The ethnically Chechen Tsarnaevs came here from neighboring Dagestan. And when did the United States start excluding immigrants from dangerous places? Seems to me that they fall into the categories of “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” not to mention “wretched refuse” of teeming shores and the “homeless, tempest-tossed.”
Nevertheless, Rep. Steve King, Republican of Iowa has also said that “we need to take a look at the big picture” before proceeding with immigration reform.
So, let’s look at the big picture. The slain older brother, Tamarlen Tsarnaev, had a green card, while the surviving younger brother, Dzhokhar, is a naturalized citizen. As I said, they both arrived here fairly recently.
But then, so did Lu Lingzi, one of the three people killed in the explosions. She was from China, a graduate student at Boston University who played piano and liked dogs and blueberry pancakes.