Slowpoke_Rodrigo
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With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...
Wednesday March 15, 2000; 10:41 AM EST
Bush's "W" Stands For Wimp in NRA-Clinton Battle
"I would hope we could have an open and honest discussion about gun enforcement without calling names."
That was how likely GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush rebuked the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre, after the NRA spokeman criticized President Clinton for demagoging the gun control issue on Sunday's "This Week with Sam and Cokie."
LaPierre had alleged that Clinton was "willing to accept a certain level of killing" so he could make political hay over tragedies like the gunshot death of six year-old Karla Roland last month.
Clinton was furious over LaPierre's criticism, calling it "a horrible political mistake." Vice President Al Gore immediately echoed his boss, charging that the NRA spokesman was "sick."
But Bush, a supposed NRA supporter, reacted as if he didn't have a dog in the Clinton/Gore-NRA fight.
"There are going to be a lot of emotions involved in the debate. But people need to come together to come up with policies to keep the handguns out of the people who shouldn't have them," said the Texas Governor in a Cumbayah moment, complete with trademark malapropism.
Bush's apparent message to LaPierre: You're on your own in this fight, pal.
Meanwhile, the Gore-Clinton team salivated over the prospect of beating Bush like a drum on the gun control issue.
"The White House and the Gore campaign are in daily contact to coordinate their messages.... and gun control is at the top of that page," reported Wednesday's New York Times.
"When the president goes out and talks about guns, he's essentially saying, A, you need a Democratic president and, B, you need to change Congress," said Democratic pollster Mark Penn. The Times added, "Bush advisors said that Mr. Clinton's high voltage rhetoric represented a marked contrast from how Mr. Bush would handle the gun control issue -- through compromise intended to get results."
Bush's strategy of keeping the issue low key may be the more politically responsible course. But charges of political irresponsibility never seem to stop the Democrats. Second Amendment backers are likely to come in for the same rhetorical browbeating that Gore gave the Christian Coalition a few years back, when he described the key GOP constituency as "extra chromosome right wingers." Predictably, the media cheered.
Bush could point to Clinton's outrageous hypocrisy on gun control with a twofer that touches on Gore's Achilles heel; the Chinagate scandal. After all, it was "President Gun Control" who feted Chinese gun smuggler Wang Jun inside the White House in 1996, just four days after his administration waived Clinton's own assault weapons ban to allow 100,000 otherwise illegal Chinese guns to flood America.
The only reason the deal didn't come off is because Wang's gang was caught trying to sneak 2,000 Chinese machine guns into Oakland, California the very next month.
Or Bush could have his surrogates take note of Clinton's swift and furious denials after LaPierre's personal attack, by contrasting the president's tepid reaction when he was faced with an even more henious accusation.
"Funny, I don't remember the President going off the deep end like this when Juanita Broaddrick accused him of rape," someone in the Bush campaign might muse within earshot of a reporter.
But so far, despite the rough and tumble primary fight he waged against John McCain, the Texas Governor shows no inclination to get down-and-dirty with Clinton-Gore.
Last week Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly asked Bush if he intended to do anything about Attorney General Janet Reno blatant obstruction of the Justice Department's campaign finance probe.
"I'm not going to make national news on your show by announcing I'm going to investigate Janet Reno," Bush shot back.
Apparently he's forgotten the 1992 presidential campaign -- and how his father had climbed to within one point of Clinton-Gore in a late CNN poll, when Democrat activists in Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's office slapped Casper Weinberger with an Iran-Contra indictment.
Primed with advance word from a suspected tipster Walsh's office, team Clinton-Gore made the so-called Reagan-Bush "Sleaze Factor" the focus of their home stretch campaigning. Bush Sr.'s momentum was stopped dead in its tracks and by election day he was down five points.
Unless attitudes change in the Austin state house soon, look for another Bush to be caught flatfooted this fall.
------------------
Slowpoke Rodrigo...he pack a gon...
Vote for the Neal Knox 13
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...
Wednesday March 15, 2000; 10:41 AM EST
Bush's "W" Stands For Wimp in NRA-Clinton Battle
"I would hope we could have an open and honest discussion about gun enforcement without calling names."
That was how likely GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush rebuked the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre, after the NRA spokeman criticized President Clinton for demagoging the gun control issue on Sunday's "This Week with Sam and Cokie."
LaPierre had alleged that Clinton was "willing to accept a certain level of killing" so he could make political hay over tragedies like the gunshot death of six year-old Karla Roland last month.
Clinton was furious over LaPierre's criticism, calling it "a horrible political mistake." Vice President Al Gore immediately echoed his boss, charging that the NRA spokesman was "sick."
But Bush, a supposed NRA supporter, reacted as if he didn't have a dog in the Clinton/Gore-NRA fight.
"There are going to be a lot of emotions involved in the debate. But people need to come together to come up with policies to keep the handguns out of the people who shouldn't have them," said the Texas Governor in a Cumbayah moment, complete with trademark malapropism.
Bush's apparent message to LaPierre: You're on your own in this fight, pal.
Meanwhile, the Gore-Clinton team salivated over the prospect of beating Bush like a drum on the gun control issue.
"The White House and the Gore campaign are in daily contact to coordinate their messages.... and gun control is at the top of that page," reported Wednesday's New York Times.
"When the president goes out and talks about guns, he's essentially saying, A, you need a Democratic president and, B, you need to change Congress," said Democratic pollster Mark Penn. The Times added, "Bush advisors said that Mr. Clinton's high voltage rhetoric represented a marked contrast from how Mr. Bush would handle the gun control issue -- through compromise intended to get results."
Bush's strategy of keeping the issue low key may be the more politically responsible course. But charges of political irresponsibility never seem to stop the Democrats. Second Amendment backers are likely to come in for the same rhetorical browbeating that Gore gave the Christian Coalition a few years back, when he described the key GOP constituency as "extra chromosome right wingers." Predictably, the media cheered.
Bush could point to Clinton's outrageous hypocrisy on gun control with a twofer that touches on Gore's Achilles heel; the Chinagate scandal. After all, it was "President Gun Control" who feted Chinese gun smuggler Wang Jun inside the White House in 1996, just four days after his administration waived Clinton's own assault weapons ban to allow 100,000 otherwise illegal Chinese guns to flood America.
The only reason the deal didn't come off is because Wang's gang was caught trying to sneak 2,000 Chinese machine guns into Oakland, California the very next month.
Or Bush could have his surrogates take note of Clinton's swift and furious denials after LaPierre's personal attack, by contrasting the president's tepid reaction when he was faced with an even more henious accusation.
"Funny, I don't remember the President going off the deep end like this when Juanita Broaddrick accused him of rape," someone in the Bush campaign might muse within earshot of a reporter.
But so far, despite the rough and tumble primary fight he waged against John McCain, the Texas Governor shows no inclination to get down-and-dirty with Clinton-Gore.
Last week Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly asked Bush if he intended to do anything about Attorney General Janet Reno blatant obstruction of the Justice Department's campaign finance probe.
"I'm not going to make national news on your show by announcing I'm going to investigate Janet Reno," Bush shot back.
Apparently he's forgotten the 1992 presidential campaign -- and how his father had climbed to within one point of Clinton-Gore in a late CNN poll, when Democrat activists in Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's office slapped Casper Weinberger with an Iran-Contra indictment.
Primed with advance word from a suspected tipster Walsh's office, team Clinton-Gore made the so-called Reagan-Bush "Sleaze Factor" the focus of their home stretch campaigning. Bush Sr.'s momentum was stopped dead in its tracks and by election day he was down five points.
Unless attitudes change in the Austin state house soon, look for another Bush to be caught flatfooted this fall.
------------------
Slowpoke Rodrigo...he pack a gon...
Vote for the Neal Knox 13
