Posted on 05/14/2003 2:32:06 PM PDT by Godebert
By JIM ABRAMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Bush should take the lead in overcoming resistance within his own party to extending an assault weapons ban due to expire next year, Democrats said Wednesday.
"If the bill dies we will lay it at the president's doorstep," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said a day after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told reporters that the 1994 law banning the manufacture of 19 types of common military-style assault weapons would not be renewed.
Schumer said the gun bill would be an issue in the 2004 election, a development that could pose problems for Democrats who represent districts with strong gun rights sentiment. The assault ban vote was also a campaign topic in 1994, the year Republicans recaptured the House after spending 40 years in the minority.
Bush, taking a position at odds with the National Rifle Association, has voiced support for extending the ban, and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on Wednesday said that support would carry weight in Congress.
"This is a matter that the House has to work out, of course, by listening to the will of its members, but the president's position is clear on it," Fleischer said. "When the president states his position like that, it helps get the message to the Congress."
Fleischer would not say whether Bush would pressure DeLay to bring such a bill up for a vote. DeLay, R-Texas, on Tuesday indicated that there would be no effort to renew the current law before it expires on Sept. 13, 2004. "The votes in the House are not there to reauthorize it," he said.
"The real question is will the president weigh in and ask the leaders to schedule a vote," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who as a senior adviser to President Clinton played a key role in guiding the 1994 legislation through Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...
Pizza and Fox News.
Pizza???? Why he's a fast food traitor! I still remember one of his first spam threads entitled "Dogs on the grill"......freepers...tell me what you grilled tonight....
He and lil Freddie, always trying to find a "knew" friend.....
Coming from someone that posts a sumo wrestler to make fun of someone, that's hilarious.
Yeah, I thought so too.
He took Missouri,(and Ohio which wasn't mentioned) and Minnesota should not have even been a contest like it was.
As for Michigan(Are you in Albion, MI), I knew it was over when I heard Gore's two commercials on the radio. It was pure genius as much as I hate to admit it.
1. Gore was "pro-gun". I knew that was BS, but he brought in Tommy Lee Jones to help blunt it.
2. The Japanese. Gore played an ad bringing up bad memories among autoworkers. Iacocca almost nailed him on his envirowackoness. Gore responded on that ad, and you might have heard it if you get Lansing radio in Albion. (paraphrasing) "I'm an autoworker. Just an autoworker. Gore would have Americans build the environmental stuff. If we don't, the Japanese will".
Gore took pro-gun Macomb and Monroe(Which Posthumus won, although he lost because of state workers) to more than make up for the yooper vote which he lost. A high black vote turnout elsewhere clinched it.
Now, Bush will need these states in 2004. Will going anti-gun play to the yoopers and swing voters in Macomb, Monroe, St Clair, Shiawasse, Roscommon, Clare, Alpena, and Lenawaee county?
Many of these gunowners are democrat leaning voters or split ticketers with a union card. Bush received 60% of the gun vote according to the exit polls. 79% of the gun activist vote.
The only advantage in MI from an Anti stance that I see is in Okemos or Oakland County, and that's outnumbered by the counties I listed above.
As for Bush's reason, I think he want's to make a play for Jersey and New York, and hope this doesn't get to his desk and hurt him here.
I want you to really think about the term "Good Cop, Bad Cop", Todd. Just really think about that for a few hours. If you do (and I hope you will), I think you'll see what he is doing. Just think about that in the context of this issue, for now.
Well - as a matter of fact, I am sleepy at the moment. :-)
Hey, conservatives are supposed to be the ones that argue issues, right? Third grade cutdowns on a site that's supposed to contain intelligent debate is pretty pathetic.
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