Larry Craig Sticks to His Guns

Washington’s Walking Embarrassment is still sitting proudly in his Senate seat and, along with his Idaho colleague, Michael Crapo, is blocking President Bush’s nomination of Michael Sullivan to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

According to the Editorial Board blog of the New York Times, “Mr. Crapo’s spokesman said his boss is hearing from gun owners and dealers with ‘concerns about ATF policies regarding gun sales and even ownership.’ It may be, he said, ‘that the federal government is getting a little too aggressive with people who haven’t done anything wrong.’

“It’s a remarkable claim to make in a month in which a young gunman in Nebraska shot 11 people, killing eight of them, at an Omaha shopping mall, and another killed four young people in two attacks on religious organizations in Colorado, before taking his own life.

“The Colorado gunman, according to the Denver Post, spent a year buying guns and ammunition…and all of his purchases were within the law. When a large shipment of ammunition was sent to a post office box owned by the gunman, the authorities were alerted, the paper reports–and specifically determined that he had a legal right to receive it.”

Awaiting action by the Senate Ethics Committee on his little Minneapolis men’s room misunderstanding, Sen. Craig is maintaining the record that earned him an A+ from the National Rifle Association. The voters who saw him inducted into Idaho’s Hall of Fame this fall must be proud.

Cross-posted from my blog.