“Harriet would have consulted with George Bush first to see how he wanted her to vote.”
You betcha. And he is the guy who begged congress to put an AWB renewal on his desk. He is the guy who hired a couple thousand DOJ lawyers to support the BATF. After his term ends, who knows how she would vote. That is the problem with hiring cronies without constitutional track records.
The issue becomes more complicated in this election. The democrats fear the RKBA crowd due to beating they have taken in past elections. They also have had their numbers diluted by the bumper crop of blue dogs. It would be risky for them to swerve hard left and embrace gun control. The constituents would hate it and future elections would be at risk.
If however Giuliani gets elected, it would be over the loud objections of the RKBA crowd. He would bear animosity toward them and consider them irrelevant. His administration would be very anti-gun. McCain would have the same issues to a lesser degree.
That's not my recollection of it. Bush said very passively that he would sign one if it reached his desk. I never heard him encourage ANYBODY to pass one, despite the fact that Congressional leadership at the time stated that there was no chance whatever that such a bill would see the light of day.
If you can document Bush asking for such a bill, I would like to hear of it.