Tuesday, October 02, 2007

RUDY GIULIANI

Reading Between the Lines of an NRA Official's Column

I'm not saying that the NRA is okay with Rudy Giuliani. I'm just noticing two things about this TownHall column from Sandy Froman, immediate past president of the National Rifle Association, about the candidate forum they held a little while back.

1) If Froman had wanted to write something like, "gun owners are looking for a candidate with a longtime and unwavering commitment to Second Amendment rights throughout that candidate's career," phrasing that would have implicitly excluded Giuliani, she could have written that. Instead, she writes:

Gun owners must elect a president in 2008 who will support and defend the Second Amendment together with the rest of the Constitution. In fact, we can’t claim victory for the Second Amendment until all the candidates of both major parties—Democrats and Republicans alike—are eager to appear before the NRA and its supporters.

This election also will shape the federal courts. The 30-year old DC gun ban was struck down six months ago by a federal appeals court as violating the Second Amendment. DC is asking the Supreme Court to uphold the ban. NRA’s lawsuit over the New Orleans gun confiscation during Hurricane Katrina is set for trial in federal court in a few months. Gun rights are at stake.

If Hillary Clinton is going to be denied the presidency, it will be because American gun owners refuse to let her launch a hostile agenda against the Second Amendment and pack the Supreme Court with anti-gun judges.

Which is more or less all the notes Giuliani hit in his speech — the Parker decision on the DC gun ban clarified my thinking, I'm appointing strict constructionists to the bench, I can beat Hillary, etc.

2) The photo that goes with the story is of Giuliani. Yes, it is of him on the cellular phone, and yes, that's probably the best or most interesting photo to use, and I'd bet a doughnut that it was picked by some TownHall editor and not Froman.

Still, it can't hurt Giuliani that a column by a leading figure in the NRA entitled, "Getting the Gun Vote" features a picture of his smiling mug.

10/02 10:03 AMShare