Booze Boat anti-gun diplomacy and backwater dealing...

[Variable]

WV's own shame.....

http://hoh.rollcall.com/booze-and-a-boat...tisanship/

We can't even recall this jackass. I hope his boat is as seaworthy as Teddy Kennedy's car was....


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Nothing brings Democratic and Republican senators together like some time alone on a yacht, says Sen. Mark S. Kirk.

Speaking to reporters about his work on firearm background checks and other gun-related legislation, the Illinois Republican told a gaggle of reporters that credit for bipartisan efforts in the Senate are in part thanks to visits to the Black Tie, a vessel that is partially owned by Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va.

“You guys really ought to go out to National Harbor and see the Black Tie, which has been much of the reason for much of the bipartisan cooperation around here,” Kirk said.

Kirk said Sens. Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat and Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, are frequent visitors. Asked about the menu at the gatherings, Kirk didn’t say much, though he indicated some booze might be consumed.

“Sometimes alcoholic beverages might be served and ties might … get loosened,” Kirk said.

Manchin and Kirk are best of friends in the Senate, in both their work and personal lives. Manchin flew to Chicago to visit Kirk in January 2012, not long after the junior Illinois senator suffered a stroke that kept him away from the chamber for a year.

As HOH has previously reported, Kirk has called the West Virginian “My Main Man Manch;” while Manchin’s called his pal an “Energizer Bunny.”
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[carbontetrachloride]

Is anyone actually surprised? The Republicrats will always roll over. Sellout liars the lot of them.

[Nukes]

Sometimes we get what we deserve. Are we voters not like Roman plebeians or worse?

[Deer Hunter]

Saxby Chamblis and Johnny Isacson have sold Georgia out to. POS Traitorous SCUM!

[LRRPF52]

The "bi-partisan" cooperation with malleable RINO's is simply Democrat strategy to get a super-majority in the Senate in 2014. Any RINO that votes for this will have that record displayed next year and will have to fight a major up-hill battle to keep their seat. It's brilliant strategy for the Dems, because they can run candidates who claim to support the 2A next year in contrast to the RINO's who voted to block Rand Paul's filibuster.

[COTNTOP]

Burr and Hagan are gettin calls and emails like crazy. Burr has been a long standing 2A supporter, don't know what he was thinking about. Next election will probably be diff for both traitors. Need new meat in our local NC government anyhow.

[LRRPF52]

[SIZE="3"]The Chessboard[/SIZE]
There are 20 Democrat Senators up for re-election in 2014, and only 13 Republicans. Think strategically. Dems and anti-gunners go rabid demanding "something must be done". Republicans hand it to them and let them vote on it, even though they don't have the votes in the Senate amongst Democrats alone to pass this, because these folks actually want to keep their jobs.

Any politician who is dumb enough to vote for anti-gun measures will hand their seat over, so it's interesting to see Republicans in the Senate who are NOT up for re-election in 2014 helping get this out of committee and handing over the rope to the useful idiots.

Another hidden dynamic
The problem is, almost every one of these Senators has dirt cards on them, so they can be pressured into voting in a manner that is career suicide for them for the statist agenda. The Democrat party has been gutted before over gun legislation in 1994 when they supported the Clinton AWB, and it cost them 54 seats in the House of Representatives.

Republican strategists, if they are thinking big, are possibly looking at this dynamic in that light. Here's who's up for re-election in 2014:

DEMOCRATS
Max Baucus (Montana)
Mark Begich (Alaska)
Chris Coons (Delaware)
William "Mo" Cowan (Massachusetts) - Appointee retiring, to be succeeded in June, 2013
Richard Durbin (Illinois)
Al Franken (Minnesota)
Kay Hagan (North Carolina)
Tom Harkin (Iowa)*
Tim Johnson (South Dakota)
Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)
Frank Lautenberg (New Jersey)*
Carl Levin (Michigan)*
Jeff Merkley (Oregon)
Mark Pryor (Arkansas)
Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
John Rockefeller (West Virginia)*
Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Mark Udall (Colorado)
Tom Udall (New Mexico)
Mark Warner (Virginia)



REPUBLICANS

Lamar Alexander (Tennessee)
Saxby Chambliss (Georgia)*
Thad Cochran (Mississippi)
Susan Collins (Maine)
John Cornyn (Texas)
Michael Enzi (Wyoming)
Lindsey Graham (South Carolina)
James Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Mike Johanns (Nebraska)*
Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)
James Risch (Idaho)
Pat Roberts (Kansas)
Jeff Sessions (Alabama)

*Retiring in 2014

Possible evidence of the strategy
Notice how a lot of the Senators who are NOT up for re-election in 2014 are in the spotlight on this one, while the last thing any of the ones who are in conservative States want to do is to vote on a gun control bill, or be perceived as supporting one. This is radio-active stuff here that they got burned on badly in 1994.

Susan Collins (RINO) can afford to support "increased background checks" (universal registration) because she comes from a relatively liberal, drug-addicted State with roughly half the working age population dependent on some type of welfare.

Senators in the South, Midwest, & Southwest cannot. Voter dissatisfaction with the last election is extremely high, and 2014 will be payback time. When I have women in my neighborhood who were opposed to having a gun in the home come to me and ask them to help pick out a blaster because of their concerns over what Obama is doing, that sticks out to me, especially when I consider that they have been burglarized 3 times, but that never motivated them to arm themselves.

Look at this list and see if any of the names are found above:

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is seeking a bipartisan compromise on provisions related to background checks, emerged from Reid’s office Tuesday evening without word of a final agreement but still hopeful that a deal was in sight.

“We’re getting there, we really are getting there. Everyone’s working,” he said.

“We’re not there yet, we’re closer than we’ve ever been,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who’s been working with Manchin on changing parts of the bill regarding background checks.

Thus far, at least eight GOP senators — John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and Susan Collins (Maine) — have said they will not join in a filibuster being planned by a handful of the party’s more conservative senators.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post...ilibuster/

Only Lindsey Graham is up for re-election in 2014, and he's a key strategist in the Republican party, having served in Congress since 1993. Saxby Chambliss is retiring in 2014, so the RINO's can run another pro-2A claiming candidate and sacrifice Chambliss to suck the Dems into a trap of their own making. Graham hasn't really faced a significant challenge ever in his political career (60%/40% in 1994, 60%/40% in 1996, 1998 unopposed, 54%/44% 2002 Senate, R-internal challenge 66%/33% 2008 Senate). He is seen as totally safe by the party, hence his ability to add traction to the Dems political noose thrown it in their face. He won all but one county in SC in 2008.

The Gun Control Albatross
The Dems can't openly address these tactics in protest, because their radical base is begging for it while parading families of the Sandy Hook children in front of them, and it would show the true disgust for human life if any Dem or RINO brought up the strategic chess game that this whole debate is. Since the White House started out full-retard, but had to be reigned in on this, re-directing it to Biden after being schooled by insiders about the losses the Dem party could face, you can see why everyone is ok discussing background checks, but wants to steer clear of any weapon bans.

When I run into customers at Sportsman's who are there under orders from the wife to secure more ammo, or are accompanied by their wives-not with the typical look of skepticism and reluctance to buy boy toys that I've observed since childhood, but with thinly-veiled angst about being able to get what they need to protect their families, I can see that things are different.