Public Heat on Sen. Weasel Ayotte Turns on the Needed Light

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) Finally Sees Light (sorta of)

Some call this the two-step or soft-shoe shuffle ... I call it tap dancing around the issue and playing loose with the facts. Nice rundown here from NBC News.

Key part: A key target (no pun intended) for gun control advocates is GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and DEM Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, both of whom have faced backlash for their votes against the bill. Amid harsh criticism and plunging poll numbers, Ayotte now says that she supports background checks, saying as she two-steps:  “Out-of-state special interests are running false ads attacking me and even lying about my efforts to prevent gun-related violence. I want to set the record straight: I support effective background checks and in fact voted recently to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).” (stated in this Op-Ed).

While Ayotte voted against the so-called Manchin-Toomey amendment, she supported a Republican-sponsored background check bill that did not include universal checks for gun shows or Internet sales, but asked that states submit mental health information to the background check database. Further she said in the Op-ed: “Some of my colleagues want to expand the broken background check system we have now. In my view, we shouldn’t be expanding a flawed system. The focus should be on fixing the existing system, which criminals are flouting.”

The sad part of this and their lousy vote - they went against nearly 90% of the public who supports extensive background checks. Those who did should pay the and leave office, either on their own power, or by the voter backlash, which I predict will be their Waterloo, and rightly so.