Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell had a message for all of those people here and elsewhere who went apeshit when the report came out that the assault weapons ban would not be included in the base package of gun control legislation.
His bottom line: the assault weapons ban is dead only if YOU sit on your lazy asses and do nothing about it.
We've all seen the headlines. "Assault Weapons Ban Dead". You've seen those, right? Well, it's time to rewrite those headlines to "Assault Weapons Ban NOT Dead". That's right, not dead. Judging by my Twitter feed, many of you are very angry at Harry Reid tonight for killing the assault weapons ban in the package of legislation that was voted out of the Judiciary Committee.
The Judiciary Committee's legislation on gun safety includes universal background checks among other things, an assault weapons ban was also in there. The vote in the committee on the assault weapons ban was straight party line — 10 Democrats in favor, 8 Republicans opposed. But unfortunately, the Judiciary Committee does not reflect the politics of the Senate as a whole. The Judiciary Committee, like some other committees, is a bit more liberal than the full Senate. Those committees can sometimes pass bills that cannot pass the Senate. It is not unusual for the Majority Leader of the Senate — whether he is a Republican or a Democrat — to slightly rewrite committee-passed bills before introducing them to the full Senate.
The Majority Leader's rewrites and edits usually have one guiding principle in mind — attracting the votes needed for passage. Committee chairmen have to do the exact same thing to get bills through their committees. The question is always the same. What happens to a bill if a certain controversial provision is in it from the start, and what happens if it's left out? And, leaving it out does not mean the controversial provision won't end up in the bill through the amendment process — which is exactly how Dianne Feinstein's original assault weapons ban ended up in the crime bill in 1993.
It wasn't in the Judiciary Committee's crime bill that was called up on the Senate floor by the Majority Leader, and it wasn't in the House version of the bill at all. And so, Senator Dianne Feinstein offered it as an amendment on the Senate floor, and argued her case. And on November 17, 1993, there was a roll call vote on the Senate floor, and Dianne Feinstein's amendment, No. 1152 to the crime bill, and the Feinstein Assault Weapons Ban passed with 56 votes, including 10 Republicans.
Some of the Democrats who voted Yes were from states where voting for gun control took political courage — Max Baucus of Montana, David Boren of Oklahoma, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor of Arkansas, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Tom Daschle from South Dakota, Jim Exon and Bob Kerrey from Nebraska, Wendell Ford of Kentucky, Tom Harkin from Iowa, Sam Nunn from Georgia, and Harris Wofford from Pennsylvania. They deserve to be mentioned and remembered by name here and now, because theirs was the kind of political courage that has largely evaporated in the Senate. Most of the names I just mentioned are no longer Senators. And Democrats don't have Senators from places like Oklahoma, Georgia, and Kentucky anymore. And the Senate seat of former Arkansas Democrat David Pryor — who I had the pleasure of working with in the Senate — is now occupied by his son Mark Pryor, who is far to the right of his father.
Harry Reid is the leader of that Senate, the Mark Pryor Senate. Not the David Pryor Senate. Harry Reid is the leader of the Senate where 9 of the 10 Republicans who voted for the 1993 assaults weapons ban are no longer Senators. Harry Reid's job is to figure out the right strategy for bringing gun legislation to the Senate floor. It is the hardest job in the Senate. And it is misnamed. His title should not be Majority Leader. It should be Majority Strategist, or Majority Scheduler. Because no Senator ever has to follow the Majority Leader, and in today's Senate, no Senator ever will follow the Majority Leader, Democrat or Republican, if there is a re-election risk involved. And so the Majority Strategist Harry Reid had a choice. Put the assault weapons ban in the bill going to the floor, and watch as the first amendment offered on the floor would be an amendment to strip out the assault weapons ban; or bring the bill to the floor without the assault weapons ban, and watch Dianne Feinstein offer it as an amendment, just like she did last time.
And Harry Reid is making the second choice. He announced tonight:
SEN. HARRY REID, D-NV (3/21/2013): Once debate begins, I will ensure that a ban on assault weapons, limits to high-capacity magazines, and mental health provisions receive votes, along with other amendments. In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for all of these provisions to receive votes, and I will ensure that they do.
There was going to be a vote on the assault weapons ban on the Senate floor, whether Harry Reid included it in the original version of the bill on the Senate floor or not. What we know now is that the vote will be up to Dianne Feinstein. If she offers it on the Senate floor — as we know she will — and fights for it — as we know she will — there is a chance, there's always a chance, it could pass. There is time to make that happen.
But she cannot do it alone, and it won't happen on the Senate floor. It has to happen before we get to the Senate floor. If Max Baucus is going to vote for the assault weapons ban again, Montana voters have to tell him to do that. If Republican Dan Coats is going to vote for the assault weapons ban again, Indiana has to tell him to do that.
You have to tell them to do it. Harry Reid is doing his job. Dianne Feinstein is doing her job. But the 57% of Americans who support the assault weapons ban have to do their jobs. You have a few weeks, at least, to get this job done before that bill comes up on the Senate floor. And in the meantime, you can attack Harry Reid all you want for not miraculously doing this on his own, but it's kind of uncool for you to be attacking Harry Reid too loudly if you haven't done your job to make sure that your Senator stands with Dianne.
#StandWithDianne
Video below the fold.
So there you go. Lawrence has started a new Twitter hashtag, #StandWithDianne.
If you are part of the 57% that supports the assault weapons ban, and you haven't called your Senators yet, then guess what? You're doing the NRA's work for them.. Harsh, but true.
So what are you waiting for? Call your Senators today. Tweet at them. Write on their Facebook pages. Make your voice heard to them, not us. Remind them of what Michael Bloomberg can do to them if they keep being lackeys for the NRA and the gun manufacturers.
Lawrence knows what he's talking about when it comes to putting political pressure on Senators, given all his time working there as a top staffer for Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). The time for whining behind a computer keyboard is over.