Shortly after U.S.
Senator Chris Murphy concluded his 15 hour filibuster – which was awarded three
out of four Pinocchios by the left of center Washington Post -- he received
plaudits from the usual corners of the Democratic Party barracks. All seven
Members of Connecticut’s U.S. Congressional Delegation heaped praise upon Mr.
Murphy, which must have come as a relief to the Senator, because it released
him of the embarrassing necessity of praising himself.
For a while there it
was nip and tuck. A meeting of the minds between Republicans, who control both
houses of Congress, and Democrats was a distinct possibility. Before Mr. Murphy’s filibuster, Senate
Republicans had proposed an amendment to a background check measure offer by
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. The Republican amendment was,
according to a story in the Hartford Courant,
a compromise attempt designed to
correct what many felt was a defect in the watch-list measure supported by
virtually all Democrats, including Senators Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy.
Attempts to deny gun
permits to people on the no-fly watch list would ensnare people whose names had appeared incorrectly on the list, improperly denying them
their constitutional right to bear arms. Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey supported
the watch list proposal but sought to refine the Feinstein amendment by
offering a “fix” that would allow the government to limit for 72 hours firearm
sales to those whose names appeared on the top secret list, after which
prosecutors would be compelled to seek from a judge an order permanently
interdicting the sale. Republicans did not want a bill that violated Constitutional
due process. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, citizens still
have a right to due process before their Constitutional immunities are violated
by an administration that – along with the Red Queen in Lewis Carrol’s “Through
the Looking Glass” – thinks it unobjectionable to have a sentence precede a
verdict.
Everything changed
when an Islamic terrorist who had announced his affiliation with ISIS stormed a
gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and slaughtered 49 people, wounding another
50. Following the slaughter in Orlando, leading Democrats decided to engage in
a filibuster, putting a halt to all Senate business, which included a vote on
an appropriation bill providing funding for the FBI, the Justice Department and
other agencies.
A spokesman for
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell registered his disappointment: “Sen.
Murphy's [filibuster] effort today prevents the Senate from processing any
amendments, including amendments he supports, as well as efforts proposed by
Republicans to help prevent terrorist attacks here at home.”
As if to underscore
the point, Mr. Murphy delivered a message to the Washington Post just hours before “the Senate was due to
vote on four gun-related amendments to a pending appropriations bill — two
proposed by Democrats, two proposed by Republicans.” The Post reported, “’We’ve
got to make this clear, constant case that Republicans have decided to sell
weapons to ISIS,’ Murphy said, using an alternative term for the Islamic State
militant group. ‘That’s what they’ve decided to do. ISIS has decided that
the assault weapon is the new airplane, and Republicans, in refusing to close
the terror gap, refusing to pass bans on assault weapons, are allowing these
weapons to get in the hands of potential lone-wolf attackers. We’ve got to make
this connection and make it in very stark terms.’”
This is not how Congressmen
generally win friends and influence people prior to a vote. Mr. Murphy is
Connecticut’s Junior Senator, the state’s Senior Senator being Dick Blumenthal,
but both Senators must know that campaign dynamite blows up compromise
measures. Mr. Murphy’s filibuster and his pre-vote, intemperate slur on
Republicans successfully scuttled a compromise on a serious issue, one in which
Congressmen from opposite political parties had been approaching a meeting of
the minds. It is important to notice that even the much maligned NRA was willing to sign off on a measure that would have denied gun sales to those on the watch list – provided Constitutional due process rights had been protected.
Following the
filibuster and Mr. Murphy’s pre-vote pugnacity, all four measures were voted
down – including the most promising compromise amendment, which nearly passed on a 53-60 vote.
The vote on the linkage
of a watch list to gun sales was lost, but the issue was saved as a campaign
battering ram. Given the abject and
obvious failure of President Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy,
Democrats will need a distraction in the upcoming Presidential elections to
draw public attention away from a “lead from behind foreign policy” that has
strengthened the hand of ISIS both at home and abroad. The ISIS terrorist who
murdered gays in Orlando was a registered Democrat, a connection that is entirely
meaningless, quite like the connection Mr. Murphy hopes to establish in the
upcoming campaign between Republicans and ISIS, once thought to be a
junior-varsity terrorist club.
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