Occupy the NRA – Silent No More “” March on the Lobbyists in DC Today.
THIS is one of those priceless moments where elite Democrats and progressives have united and it’s against Heidi Heitcamp for her vote against universal background checks. It’s a stupid vote for which she deserves to be held accountable, as do the other senators who blocked the legislation.
Bill Daley’s Washington Post piece got the attention of every progressive activist I know. Daley, for those of you who don’t remember, was Obama’s chief of staff 2011-2012, as well as secretary of commerce under Bill Clinton.
Bill Daley joined Senator Joe Manchin, one of the heroes this time around, both standing tough against the NRA, even if both are two of the powerful conservative Democrats progressives love to hate. An excerpt from Daley’s op-ed:
I want my money back.
Last October, I gave $2,500 to support Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign to become North Dakota’s junior senator. A few weeks later, she won a surprise victory.
I have had a long career in government and politics, but I don’t donate heavily to political campaigns. When I contribute, it’s because I know the candidate well or am really impressed with the person. Heidi Heitkamp was one of the latter: She struck me as strong-willed, principled and an independent thinker.
But this week, Heitkamp betrayed those hopes. …
When I think about the Democrats I will focus on supporting in 2014, Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Kay Hagan (N.C.) will be at the top of my list. Both represent states where Republicans typically have an advantage and where there is a long and deep tradition of gun ownership. Both had the wisdom to understand that making it harder for criminals to get guns protects, rather than endangers, the rights of responsible, law-abiding gun owners.
As Joyce posted yesterday, Occupy the NRA will sponsor Silent No More “” March on the Lobbyists in DC, McPherson Square, 12:00 PM EDT. Everyone will be watching to see what kind of presence these fearless activists against the NRA will amass.
Activists for gun safety are the underdog in this one and we should all be rooting for them.
Heitcamp’s brother guest-hosted Ed Schultz’s radio show one day last week. When he got done blathering his opening monologue about how Heidi’s name isn’t Heidi it’s Mary Katherine and they went to Catholic School and every girl was Mary Katherine blah blah blah he started launching into a rant against “so called Progressives” who “don’t GET us here in North Dakota,” how “we hunters love our guns” and “guns are a part of us” and the same goes for Montana and a few other states, and if we keep bitching we’ll get a GOP Majority in 2014 etc. etc. etc.… Read more »
I feel we need to continue to put pressure on democrats who voted against the bill, but I’m not willing to throw Heidi under the bus just yet. Knowing what North Dakota is like when it comes to guns, I’m not surprised that the junior senator voted the way she did. For some of these senators, they need to know that there will be cover for voting against a huge power base in there state, and that will take everybody to get involved and making our voices heard. Also, some of us do give a damn if republicans are in… Read more »
“The difference between what the republican party has become and the democratic party is huge.”
Don’t worry, the Democratic Party is hard at work making that difference smaller and smaller with each passing day.
As Heitcamp’s brother said in a moment of what I’m sure was accidental dishonesty, “the Republicans keep moving to the Right, which forces the Democrats more and more to the Center.” So the more Conservative the Republicans get, the more Conservative the Democrats get. You want to support that, fine. I pass.
Bully for you.
Don’t worry, the Democratic Party is hard at work making that difference smaller and smaller with each passing day.
As we can see here, that trend is in no danger of reversing. As long as conservatives punish their politicians for failing, and as long as progressives make excuses for theirs, which sometimes involves talking about vast distances between the two parties that you couldn’t shove a paring knife into, we can expect the drift to continue.
As long as conservatives punish their politicians for failing, and as long as progressives make excuses for theirs, I guess I agree, but the result has not been good for the GOP. The GOP punished politicians they didn’t feel were ideologically pure and ended up with ridiculous candidates with no chance to win such as Sharon Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, etc. The result of this was strengthening the Democratic senate majority. I know you don’t like the implications of it, but Max Baucus and Heidi Heitkamp are about as good as the Democrats are going to get… Read more »
I’m not a party operative. I could care less which party is in power. The important thing is who is getting what he wants? If you think the answer to that is “progressives”, please put on the pointy cap and sit at the back of the class. The conservatives are getting what they want, and it doesn’t matter a damn bit to me that it’s the Democrats who are giving it to them.
I gave a bit of a contribution to her campaign for Senate. After the vote on background checks, I received a request for another contribution to her, instead I unsubscribed to the group representing her and then went to her Senate page and wrote her that, like Daley, I also wanted a refund and told her she lost forever my financial and political support and I called her out for her outrageous vote against background checks because she had nothing to lose by voting for background checks for years unlike Senators Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan who are up for… Read more »
Good for you!
Heitkamp should get zero support from Dems over this.
Any Democrat who’s to the RIGHT of Joe Manchin on guns, who has a 100% NRA rating until the universal background check legislation (which most gun owners, including my husband and myself support), isn’t worth supporting as a Democrat. He lives in West Virginia, for Christ sake!
Absolutely. Heitkamp did in her own self and she had nothing to lose had she voted for the very modest but very important background check bill. Well, now she does have it to lose and by her own party (and I hope a majority of Dems remain inflexible over this). Tough.
RE/ Senator Kelly Ayott, don’t get me started on this woman who is grandstanding all over the place (I have criticized Senator Ted Cruz for grandstanding all over the place so I’m an equal opportunity critic) and she’s mostly embarrassed herself over Benghazi and Susan Rice, her inept questioning of Chuck Hagel during his Senate confirmation hearing and now this “no risk” vote on background checks and several other issues as well as the third stooge in the McCain/Lindsey third rate act. Enough White House dinners for Kelly Ayott. New Hampshire deserves better. Along with Cruz, Paul, Rubio, Johnson, she’s… Read more »
Ayotte disgraced herself over Benghazi by becoming the third Stooge next to McCain & Graham.
It has been almost painful to watch because I have the feeling if things in the GOP were different towards women (in other words they all acted in teh realm of reason and acted like 21 Century men), perhaps she would also be conducting herself differently. But,that’s giving her the benefit of the doubt which is only fair but equal chances are, perhaps she would be doing the same thing. Who knows. There were two GOP women who come to mind that belonged to that fossil class of congress people, the Republican East Cost Liberal and for whom I had… Read more »
This was part of my twitter feed today which says it all about the very modest but important background check vote which went down:
http://tinyurl.com/ajlhaao
Yep, it says it all.
Love John Oliver! Looking forward to seeing what he can do stepping in for Jon Stewart this summer.