NRA on firing line over Harry Reid

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

The National Rifle Association is in unfamiliar terrain on the conservative firing range this election year: It’s the target.

The conservative Netroots are abuzz over the possibility that the NRA may endorse Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). This would be the second major slight by the NRA for political conservatives — the gun group also just negotiated a big exemption on a campaign finance bill loathed by the right.

Conservatives say there’s a clear political calculation at work: If Reid loses, he’s almost certain to be succeeded as majority leader by a fierce gun-control advocate, either Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin or New York Sen. Chuck Schumer.

The NRA isn't even denying this line of reasoning but says it hasn’t made a decision about whether to endorse Reid.

“The Second Amendment and the National Rifle Association are always one bad incident away from politicians like Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin exploiting their agenda of gun control,” said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman.

Still, the fact that a Reid endorsement is even a possibility has conservatives buzzing.

“Sharron Angle has been a true patriot on Second Amendment issues in the Nevada Legislature, and Harry Reid both voted for every anti-gun nominee [barack] Obama has put up and voted for the Brady bill, the assault weapons ban, etc.,” conservative blogger Erick Erickson wrote on Redstate.com. “People at the NRA and people in the Senate are telling me the NRA will be endorsing Harry Reid later this year and the only way to stop it is to be very vocal about it right now. So keep making sure they know it would be unacceptable.”

It all portends a nasty and prolonged fight between Republicans and a highly influential lobby that has long been a GOP partner in Washington policy battles — and it could hardly come at a worse time for Republicans, who see the Nevada race as one of the GOP's best opportunities to cut into Democrats’ 59-seat majority.

Officially, the NRA is holding its fire for now in the race between Reid and tea-party-backed Republican nominee Angle, but conservatives are building a case that it’s a matter of when, not if, Reid will get the gun group’s nod.

First, Reid has a fairly favorable lifetime rating from the NRA. And then there’s the $61 million for the Clark County Shooting Park, earmarked by Reid, which led Wayne LaPierre, chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association, to call Reid “a true champion” of the Second Amendment at an event commemorating the opening of the 2,900-acre park in April.

That’s triggered a new round of recriminations from gun rights activists, many of whom believe the NRA is sort of a pale, commercial version of more dogmatic groups such as the Gun Owners of America.
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This is what comes of being a single-issue voting bloc.

[AceRimmer]

And I was just today thinking of rejoining the NRA. I might have to wait on that one.

 

They should be focusing on the big picture instead of small battles like Harry Reid, who will stab them in the back the moment he gets the chance. Charleton Heston has to be spinning in his grave.