Some Good News
Hillary Clinton’s replacement, Kristen Gillibrand, is reportedly pro-gun:
A big gun supporter, she’s been given a 100% approval rating by the NRA — she’s one of the extremely few Democrats on a federal level to win official NRA endorsement — and, this fall, she voted in favor of a controversial bill to repeal District of Columbia laws prohibiting the possession of semiautomatics.
From her website:
I, like many natives of Upstate New York, grew up in a hunting family and own a gun. I learned at an early age how to safely handle a gun and I believe that every law-abiding citizen should always have the right to own arms.
The Second Amendment of the Constitution prohibits the federal government from denying law-abiding citizens the right to keep and bear arms. And I intend to uphold this right through my votes and actions in Congress.
More Democrats like this, please.
Update: And she’s pissing off the right people:
“I’ve spent 15 years trying to prevent gun violence in this country, and if he does pick her and if no one goes and primaries her, I will primary her,” McCarthy said. “I will do that. I’m not going to give up on this. I’m not going to let New York State get represented by someone who gets a 100 percent rating from the NRA.”
With bonus STFU from Chuck Schumer (D-Own Gravitational Field).
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am
What, no comments yet? Okay I’ll start:
HOORAY!
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
“More Democrats like this, please.”
Hell, more Republicans like that.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
It will be interesting to see if she moves left after going to the Senate, because her constituency won’t be quite so pro-gun as it is now.
However, if she survives a primary fight, she will be intractable, and you’ll have a vote for years to come in New York State.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Left is the wrong term here, it’s not that much of a left-right issue.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Every word of it true. Upstate NY is not NYC — people in her district hunt, they are mountaineers, and culturally they have more in common with the rest of Appalachia than they do with the urban and suburban downstate. She’s got crazy-high approval ratings (she won in a landslide last election and even the people who didn’t vote for her now say that she’s doing a good job) and, in step with what’s being said in Washington, she actually does work well in bipartisan settings.
Although my politics are considerably more progressive than hers, I think she’s a smart choice for the state as a whole and I’m relieved that she was selected over other more progressive but less legislatively able politicians (like Andrew Cuomo).
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I wouldn’t expect her to budge on this issue much, really. (I also wonder how much the next Congress is going to do on the gun issue — I suspect they will have their hands full with other parts of their domestic agenda.) She’s also an intelligent critic of US ag policy and has been interested in finding ways to help small to midsize farms while getting rid of the subsidy system. It’s not a sexy topic, but a necessary one and I expect her to continue to pursue her interests.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Gillibrand looks like the Democratic answer to Sarah Palin. Gun-toting, good-looking, mother of young kids (1 and 4), has had some conflict with members of her own party, now stepping onto the national stage with her appointment to the Senate. If she plays her cards right, she could very well be a Presidential candidate within the next few elections.
Also, I am glad to see Upstate get some representation in the Senate.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Yeah, that’s a good analogy but it only goes so far. She’s very well-educated and comes from a wealthy well-connected family, so she mingles comfortably with East Coast elites because she’s one of them by birth and training. She’s a feminist Roman Catholic with a 100% rating from NARAL and the ACLU, so I don’t know how comfortable evangelical Protestants or even hard-line Catholics would be with her as president. She’s a mixed-bag, but that’s why she’s a good choice.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Wow, Can it be? I actually… Like a polititian from my state?
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Well, at least she is right on guns. It does not matter if she is an Upstater or not because those buffoon voters will always bend over for NYC. Except Niagara County.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
too bad the 2nd ammendment doesn’t apply to states. only federal. see aftermath of Columbia v. Heller in NY state.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Not yet, it doesn’t, but there is a case working its way up the judicial ladder challenging Chicago gun laws with the intent of getting the 2nd incorporated against the states via the 14th amendment. It’s being run by the same guys that worked on the DC v. Heller case.
January 24th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Although the 2nd ammendment has not been incorporated “YET”, the decision is clear that it is a right of the people, when will citizens of this country stop trashing the rights they don’t like, and respect them all;even if they don’t agree with them?
January 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I have to agree with the writer that says this person sounds like Sarah Palin, LEFTY version. Sarah Palin scared the hell out of the lefty’s (that’s why they slamed her so hard). So, we are supposed to be more confortable with a lefty who will (at this point anyway) uphold the constition they are sworn to protect? Another Senator comes to mind, Zell Miller, who I believe was from Georgia. His own party treated him as a leaper and when he did not fall in the “Party” line, he was ostrasized (forgive the spelling) and left the party in disgust.
Regrettably, on a National level if this would be Senator does not fall in line….Well. As a consolation, there is at least ONE thing this New Yorker can mention about his home state Politician.
A New Yorker who at one time was “pro” constition?
Just think of it, if “upstate” New York seperated from downstate, I would move “upstate” immediatly. There would probably be a new RED state in the union that I would be proud to call home.
January 24th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I have always loved upstate NY. For a southern boy, it’s almost like being home, except they talk funny and it’s cold.
January 25th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
The good news is that Gillibrand is an affirmation (and confession) that a Palin-esque politician appeals to the masses. On issues when Dems have the necessary votes, she will probably break ranks to portray a willingness to stand against the status quo.
The bad news is that when it really matters and the chips are on the line, she’ll take one for “the Team”, to our detriment. Schumer would not be supporting her unless this was true.
Begrudgingly, I have to give the Dems credit for a brilliant choice. Princess Caroline would have been stomped in 2010. A Dem in hand for eight years is better than two years and a likely Republican for six thereafter.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Probably true, particularly given Gillibrand’s carefully chosen statements about protecting hunters’ rights, without saying a word about any other gun owners. So my tentative view is that Gillibrand will be a step up from Hillary, and certainly an improvement over Caroline Y’Know Kennedy, but hardly anything to write home about.
Another possibility, though, is that Chuckie Schumer has pretty much given up on gun control as a national issue for the foreseeable future. He likely remembers what happened the last time an “assault” weapons ban squeaked through both houses of a Democrat Congress under intense pressure from a Democrat President, and maybe, just maybe, he’s rational enough to see that trading 10 years of an AW ban for 12 years of Republican control of both houses just ain’t worth it. By contrast, Carolyn McCarthy, who owes her entire political career to the theory that being close to a victim of something makes you an expert in it, likely figures that any Democrat government that won’t take away everyone’s guns is a Democrat government that’s not worth electing, anyway.