On top of that, they ALL took a hell of a lot of money from a series of PACs including the NRA-ILA, GOA, AGS, The Brady Boob/Million Morons, and the best (and biggest spenders of them all) the LAWYERS PACs. In the end the only people who "won" are the Senators themselves and the big money lawyers. As a professional group, lawyers' PACs spend the most money "buying" the whores in Congress.
Everybody is bitching about something in this little episode; at the end of the day, not one damn thing was won or lost in terms of the "culture wars" or the RKBA, or the War on Freedom; every issue that the bastards voted on is still viable one way or the other; nothing is ever "dead" with any certainty in politics. Its like the King Vampire; no matter how many times you think you've finally knocked him off, he always manages to "come back from the grave" for one more atrocity.
The blood-suckers in the Senate know this; unfortunately, there is no wooden stake big enough to drive through the heart of that monster known as the US Senate so as to end our misery once and for all. No, all this crap will be back in one form or the other - evil never sleeps and politics is the very essence of evil incarnate.
First off, the Republicans aren't smart enough to do anything as devious as what you are suggesting. Further more all of the amendments had Republican authors or sponsers so Republicans voted to add all of the amendments. The Dems would have been on the Congressional Record as being against gun lawsuits if they would have just passed the clean bill. Also you have a ton of Republicans voting against outlawing the gun lawsuits. Which makes great ads for the Dems, I can see it now "Kerry and 89 other members of the Senate, including x Republicans, voted to let people recover money from negligent gun companies, why does the President keep pushing this extreme gun agenda?" The Dems played the Republicans like fiddle throughout this debate. There is no Republican leadership in the Senate.
Don't forget that there were ten Republicans who voted for the bill along with Feinstein, and Boxer. Whatever defeats we can send the Democrats need to include these Republican enemies as well:
Chafee R-RI,
Collins R-ME,
DeWine R-OH,
Fitzgerald R-IL,
Gregg R-NH,
Lugar R-IN,
Smith R-OR,
Snowe R-ME,
Vonovich R-OH,
Warner R-VA
The critical issue in this debate became the AWB renewal. The Senate voted to add this amendment to the bill by 52-47. That is the clearest statement of where our Senate stands today. As long as a majority of the Senate will vote for such an infringement, there is nothing to lead. One must be content with not losing ground.
I will be looking for opportunities to help the pro-gun opponents of those Republicans who are challenging me to defend the Constitution of the United States with my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor. They are disgusting tyrants and should look elsewhere for sympathy if my chance to stop them arises.