Issue 1 is the National Rifle Association versus the White House. Issue 2 is George W. Bush’s remarks to the New York Times about John McCain.
After accusing President Clinton of condoning murder last Sunday on ABC’s This Week, NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre appears chastened but not apologetic. (He appears on CNN’s Late Edition, NBC’s Meet the Press, and Fox News Sunday.) NRA President Charlton Heston–less abrasive and more conciliatory than his deputy–appears on TW.
Michael Barone ( McLaughlin Group) argues that LaPierre has been proved right: Clinton does use well-publicized murders to bolster his own gun-control agenda. But most pundits, such as Eleanor Clift (MG) and Steve Roberts (LE), think that the president’s agenda is correct, and that LaPierre’s rhetoric was overheated. Tucker Carlson (LE) and George Stephanopoulos (TW) note that the NRA has long served as a bogeyman for the left. Roberts and Tony Snow (FNS) argue that both sides are avoiding compromise by exaggerating their differences–the NRA to attract new members, the White House to help Al Gore in the fall. Brit Hume (FNS) thinks that this last point is misguided–gun-control is never a big issue in national elections. But Mara Liasson (FNS) remarks that the issue will matter in lots of local congressional races.
Most pundits–such as Cokie Roberts (TW), Mark Shields (PBS’s NewsHour With Jim Lehrer), and Tucker Carlson–think that Bush has hurt his chances by dismissing John McCain’s electoral issues in an interview with the New York Times. George F. Will (TW) and Robert Novak (CNN’s Capital Gang) argue that Bush was merely sticking to principle. Gwen Ifill ( Washington Week in Review) and David Broder (MTP) remark that McCain’s appeal is personal, not issue-related, so Bush’s refusal to change his campaign-finance platform is not as irrational as the Times would like to think. But Janet Hook (WWIR) and Paul Gigot (NH) predict that Gore’s adoption of a campaign-finance reform plan will serve only to elevate the prominence of the issue. (To read Chatterbox’s take on Bush’s interview in the Times, click here.)
Miscellany
In an interview with TW, former President Gerald Ford urges Bush to move to the political center, noting that Ronald Reagan was able to do so in 1980 without losing his right-wing constituency.
How To Lie With Statistics
On TW, Charlton Heston cites a Zogby poll to “prove” that a majority of Americans are pro-gun rights. On CG, Al Hunt cites, yes, a Zogby poll to “prove” that a majority of Americans are pro-gun control. (To read a Slate article on the cult of Zogby, click here.)
The Inquisitor
TIM RUSSERT (MTP): You will not apologize for your comment?
WAYNE LaPIERRE: No.
RUSSERT: You will not retract it?
LaPIERRE: It’s the Clinton policy that needs to be changed.
…
RUSSERT: So just to make clear, as we sit here on this Sunday, March 19th, you believe the president uses killing for political purposes and has blood on his hands?
LaPIERRE: Tim, all I know is he could save lives, and the chairman–
RUSSERT: But why can’t you just say yes–
LaPIERRE: –of the Democratic–
RUSSERT: –that’s what you believe?
LaPIERRE: –National Committee said that if they would put the program Wayne and the NRA are trying to get around the country, it would save lives.
RUSSERT: But some people think you’re using this hot rhetoric in order to increase your membership and raise money.
LaPIERRE: I’m trying, I’m using this–
RUSSERT: Do you believe it or not? Do you believe it?
LaPIERRE: I’m using this hot rhetoric because I’m trying to get people to focus on the fact these guys in the White House, while they want a lot more gun laws, they refuse to enforce the gun laws on the books against the drug dealers, the gangs and the violent felons, and they’re the ones doing the killings.
RUSSERT: So the president tolerates killing–
LaPIERRE: Janet Ren–
RUSSERT: –and has blood on his hands. Do you believe that?
LaPIERRE: Janet Reno went before the Senate committee, and Senator Hatch said, “Can we expect any improvement in the prosecution numbers?” And she said, “I can’t promise you that.” When you don’t increase the prosecutions, people are dying. That’s the NRA’s point.
RUSSERT: So your answer is yes?
LaPIERRE: The issue’s not rhetoric with the president, Tim. The issue is why that felon, Rap Brown, was on the streets of Atlanta when this administration could have prosecuted him under the existing federal gun laws and why that murder was allowed to happen.
RUSSERT: You stand by your comments?
LaPIERRE: I stand by the fact that they’re not enforcing the law.
RUSSERT: You stand by your comments?
LaPIERRE: It’s not an issue of Wayne’s rhetoric vers–
RUSSERT: Why can’t you say yes or no?
LaPIERRE: Because you guys in the media want this to be Wayne’s rhetoric versus the White House.
RUSSERT: So?
LaPIERRE: And what it ought to be is on the lack of prosecutions out of this administration.
RUSSERT: We here at Meet the Press want to hold you accountable for your comments. Do you stand by your comments?
LaPIERRE: I stand by my comments that if this administration would enforce the federal law, they’d save lives, and they’re not doing it while they call for a lot more laws.
Last Word
Jack [Kemp] is right–I don’t belong in the Republican Party that the establishment runs here in Washington D.C. I don’t believe in the globalism Jack believes in. He mentioned the classical liberals [by referring to Buchanan’s views as “illiberal”]. They’re a 19th-century group that I think is profoundly wrong.
–Pat Buchanan (LE)
