[MineralMan]

"I fully expect this to come out of the conference with the AWB intact and it will land on Dubya's desk and he will sign it as he's promised to do."

I agree with you. Fairly recent polls about extending the AWB come back with almost a 2/3 majority in favor of the extension. And these aren't one-sided web polls.

DeLay may strut a little and show his spurs, but my bet is that the AWB amendment to this bill gets through conference. I'll further bet that they pull one or another amendment to "clean up" the bill in conference, while leaving the AWB extension in place.

Then, it will pass both the House and Senate, Bush will sign it, as he said he would, and the AWB goes on.

Single issue Republicans may decide not to vote for Bush because of this, and it will make no significant difference in the November elections.

What will Bush gain? He'll gain the ability to say, "See, I helped take all those assault weapons off the street, making our nation safer." What will that get him? Enough soccer mom votes to offset the RKBA voters, who may well not have voted for him in 2000.

He can't veto such a bill, because that will become the Dem's big issue for 2004. Similarly, only those GOP house members who know they will lose if they vote for the bill will give a good goshdarn. The rest, as we saw in the Senate, will vote Yes or No, not based on principle, but based on what they expect their district voters to care about.

Sadly, "assault weapons" are disliked by a heckuva lot of Republican voters, right or wrong. This ain't as simple as it seems.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Sadly, "assault weapons" are disliked by a heckuva lot of Republican voters, right or wrong. This ain't as simple as it seems.

Yeah it is. We are talking simple semi auto rifles. It's simply an incremental attack on our freedom.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Enough soccer mom votes to offset the RKBA voters, who may well not have voted for him in 2000

---

We RKBA folks not only voted for him in 2000, we donated, and worked to get out the vote. (We assumed he was a cynical politician on his weakly stated support for the AWB, and didn't mean it.)

Now, he can do without our votes unless he upholds his oath.