Silence on gun control...the new Democratic strategy? [View All]

[spin]

Nevertheless, it's tough to dispute the recent political success of the Democrats' surrender on guns. They knew they'd never recapture Congress and the White House unless they connected with rural and working-class voters, and that meant pledging vocal fealty to the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. The strategy clicked in 2006, when the Democrats won both congressional chambers by running gun-rights candidates in culturally conservative districts and states. Then they all sat silent in 2007 when a whacked-out Virginia Tech student, taking advantage of easy legal purchase, shot and killed 33 innocent people.

Silence is the new Democratic strategy. The majority party has a big tent now. Its denizens are diverse, from coastal lefties to backwoods righties. Priority one is to protect the centrist and conservative freshmen from political harm back home; after all, there's an election next year. There's no appetite for doing anything that would put those Democrats in the crosshairs of the gun lobby.

That's why Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, was basically told to zip his lip about any restoration of the assault-weapons ban. Three months ago, he came out for restoration; he had the wild and crazy idea that such a ban might help stanch the easy flow of assault weapons to the Mexican drug gangs who are wreaking havoc at the border. The NRA swung into action, and 65 House Democrats -- many from swing districts -- formally protested Holder's idea. Holder got the memo. By April, he was saying: "I respect the Second Amendment," and little more.
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/05/democrats_abdicate_on_gun_cont.html