Did Harry Reid Throw D.C. Voting Rights Under the Bus for Naught

That's the question that the Washington City Paper asks in this article about the NRA's decision not to endorse Reid.

Those who were watching the battle over legislation that would have given the District full and equal voting rights in the U.S. House know Reid’s role in allowing a poison-pill amendment” on the voting rights legislation, a D.C. gun-rights provision that many D.C. officials, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, could not in the end stomach.

The NRA noted Reid's votes for U.S. Supreme Court nominees Sonja Sotomayor and Elana Kagan as the reason for not endorsing one of the most endangered incumbents in congress. Over the last six years, Reid has pretty much voted for pro-gun legislation and against anti-gun measures. NRA has shown however that it meant what it said when it opposed both Sotomayor and Kagan.

It should be noted that NRA did not endorse Reid's opponent, Sharon Angle, either. It will be interesting to see what Reid's final NRA-PVF rating is when they become public sometime in October. Virginians will then have some indication just what support for the two anti-gun nominees might also cost Virginia Senator's Jim Webb and Mark Warner, both of whom voted for Obama's nominees to the high court and who have carefully worked to cultivate a pro-gun voting record on things like national carry reciprocity and gun rights for D.C. Webb may be facing former Senator George Allen in a rematch of the 2006 race in 2012.

DC Voting Rights Act Still on Hold

I posted earlier this week that the House postponed action on the DC Voting Rights Act because pro-rights Democrats may push to include a pro-rights amendment aimed at requiring DC to abide by the Heller Decision and strip much of the new regulations the city imposed on anyone wishing to own a firearm. As of today, no vote has been scheduled.

The Hill reported late yesterday that House Leadership has offered the NRA a stand alone bill on DC gun rights. The problem is, there would be no incentive for the Senate to take up the bill and it would flounder as it did last year when the House passed a bill expanding the rights of DC residents only to see it die of inaction in the Senate. But with the gun rights amendment, the DC Voting Rights Act will likely die as pro-rights Republicans who want to abide by the constitution when it comes to giving DC a representative in Congress would join with anti-rights Democrats who don't want DC residents to own firearms.

Politics at its best.