|
In Missouri, A GOP Reservist Breaks the Rules to Pass a Hidden Handgun Law: It’s the Rule of Law for Democrats, and Anything Goes for Republicans.
BUZZFLASH
GUEST COMMENTARY
by Joe Sudbay
If you can’t win fair and square, change the rules.
That is the mantra of the GOP and their top grassroots lobbying wing, the National Rifle Association.
For the past decade, the NRA has been on a mission to arm America by allowing citizens to carry concealed, loaded handguns in public. In Missouri, their effort stalled because of Governor Mel Carnahan. He vowed to veto the NRA-backed bill if it did not allow a referendum. The NRA finally took the challenge in the 1998 legislative session. The NRA wrote the proposed law and picked a special election date that would work for them. They then spent more than $ 4 million in an effort to pass their initiative, known as Proposition B. One of the NRA’s best friends, then-Senator and current NRA Life Member John Ashcroft, did radio ads supporting Proposition B. By election day, April 6, 1999, the NRA had spent more than five times as much money as the opponents of Proposition B. But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls. The NRA lost. They couldn’t buy off and control the people of Missouri like they controlled their legislators in Jefferson City.
After this stunning loss -- which came despite the NRA’s almost total control over the process (except, of course, for the final outcome) -- the organization blamed Mel Carnahan. According to the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, "The NRA's James J. Baker [the organization’s chief lobbyist] blamed Carnahan for the outcome, accusing him of meddling in a race into which the NRA had poured more than $3.7 million. 'Governor Carnahan injected his own personal views into this democratic initiative process.'" NRA Spokesman Bill Powers told the, "[Carnahan] did everything he could do to defeat this measure....This crosses the line to where it becomes a mistrust of the people of the state." Only an organization so adept at thwarting the public interest could interpret a defeat in a public referendum in such a way.
The
NRA, which has become a dominant force in the Republican Party’s right
wing, sought to avenge their loss by defeating Carnahan in his
2000 Senate race against Ashcroft. The NRA’s then-top lobbyist, James
Jay Baker, said that reelecting Ashcroft to the U.S. Senate was one of
the organization’s top priorities. According to The Hill newspaper,
Baker explained, "That is a clear good-guy bad-guy race from our
stand point. We plan to do whatever it takes to make sure John Ashcroft
retains that
seat." In November 2000, Ashcroft lost his Senate seat to Carnahan,
who had died a few weeks earlier in a plane crash. That gave Ashcroft
the
peculiar distinction of being the only incumbent United States senator
to ever lose to a dead man. (Of course, George W. Bush saw this infamous
distinction as a sign of "Ashcroft’s skills" -- because losers are completely
loyal -- and appointed him Attorney General, which was just fine with
the NRA. Ashcroft also happened to end up as the NRA cover boy [LINK]
on one of their publications, which was just fine with Bush.)
Now fast forward to the present, the summer of 2003. The NRA and their
blind followers in the Missouri Legislature finally were able to overturn
the will of the people as reflected in the referendum. With the help
of their friends, they overturned Governor Bob Holden’s veto of legislation
to allow the carrying of concealed handguns in public.
Utter disregard and contempt for the public is a trademark of the NRA wing of the GOP. When they originally couldn’t muster the votes to override the veto, the NRA once again wrote a new set of rules. Last week, the deciding vote was cast by Republican State Senator Jon Dolan, who took a special leave from his military posting at Guantanamo (Gitmo) to come back and vote the NRA way. According to the Associated Press, "State Sen. Jon Dolan, a Republican and a major in the Army National Guard, had been serving at Guantanamo Bay for only two weeks, and military regulations say a newly deployed soldier must be on duty at least two months before getting a leave."
The NRA’s interest outweighed both the public interest and the rule of law. Imagine the outrage if the situation were reversed. If a member of the military invoked special privileges to come home and vote against the NRA or any other ally of the GOP, the whole right-wing apparatus would be in a frenzy. Fox News, Rush, Hannity, and the Reverend Moon’s Washington Times would be apoplectic. No doubt, John Ashcroft, the attorney general who might as well be the NRA’s chief counsel, would threaten to investigate.
One more time the rules were changed for the franchise player of the GOP’s team: the NRA.
Mike Hendricks from the Kansas City Star said it best, "...the Missouri General Assembly has spit upon the will of the people. The contempt the lawmakers have shown toward the voters is itself contemptible." When it comes to contempt for the will of the people, the same can be said for the GOP, the NRA, and John Ashcroft.
Joe Sudbay
Public Policy Director
Violence Policy Center
BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
Articles in the BuzzFlash Contributor section are posted as-is. Given the timeliness of some Contributor articles, BuzzFlash cannot verify or guarantee the accuracy of every word. We strive to correct inaccuracies when they are brought to our attention.
