(POLITICO)
By Roger Simon
Wayne LaPierre may have more blood on his hands than Dracula, but — fair is fair — he also has the guts of a burglar.
He will say anything to advance the agenda of the National Rifle Association, which he runs, and he doesn’t worry about his critics. Under his leadership, the NRA has grown and today is one of the most feared lobbies on Capitol Hill.
I should point out that, unlike Dracula, LaPierre neither kills people nor drinks their blood. It is just my personal belief that the NRA’s gun mania has led to the slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and children in this country.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now spending $12 million of his own money on TV ads to combat the NRA and LaPierre. The ads are calm and reasonable. In one, a hunter in a plaid shirt, cradling a shotgun, says, “I support comprehensive background checks so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can’t buy guns.”
But to LaPierre “calm and reasonable” is the same as “weak.” Bloomberg “can’t spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public,” LaPierre sneered on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “They don’t want him telling them what food to eat; they sure don’t want him telling them what self-defense firearms to own. And he can’t buy America!”
All anyone really has to buy, however, is Congress. LaPierre knows how to intimidate senators.