Just 2 items in this Alert: 1. Personal note and appeal from Jeff 2. Holder Confirmation Hearing scheduled for January 15!!
Congress is planning to hit the ground running in a few days.The new Congress will be sworn in on January 6 and the Senate Judiciary Committee has set a date of January 15 for confirmation hearings on Barack Obama's pick for Attorney General, Eric Holder.Gunowners need to be pushing members of the committee very hard to delay and block the confirmation.
The Democrat members of the Judiciary Committee are all sworn enemies to the Second Amendment and are unlikely to be swayed at all by any firearms related arguments, but might hesitate to confirm based on Holders participation in the pardons of 16 Puerto Rican terrorists and billionaire financier and arms merchant Marc Rich.Any letters to Democrats should focus on those issues.
On the Republican side, Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the committee has never been a friend to gun rights, but he owes his reelection to NRA support and has expressed concern over the pardon issues.Among the other Republicans, most are relatively reliable votes, but only Coburn has routinely taken a leadership role on Second Amendment matters.All of them need to be pressed hard to do everything they can to block the appointment.
(Click "Read More" below to read the entire Alert)
Our good friend John Snyder, author of "Gun Saint" and the senior lobbyist on the gun issue in Washington, DC, has released a statement to the press outlining the growing coalition building in opposition to the appointment of Eric Holder to the office of Attorney General.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on the confirmation of Holder for 15 January. That means we must act quickly. I have supplied a sample letter and a list of the members of the Senate Judiciary in my January 2 Alert available here.
(December 18, 2008)Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Holder to be the Attorney General demands an immediate and unequivocal response from gunowners and rights advocates and that response should be “Absolutely Not!”
Holder’s appointment to be AG must be approved by the Senate.While it is highly unlikely that opponents could muster the 51 votes needed to reject Holder’s appointment, a single Senator can place a “hold” on the confirmation and effectively lock up the system just as Democrats did with a number of President Bush’s judicial appointments and the appointment of John Bolton to be Ambassador to the UN.Once a “Hold” has been placed, a supermajority of 60 votes is required to break the hold.With enough vocal opposition to Holder’s confirmation, Obama could be forced to withdraw the nomination and select someone else to be his AG.Even if opponents cannot successfully block Holder’s appointment, a strong and concerted effort to do so will go far toward warning the Obama administration and the new Congress against trying to interfere with the rights of Americans to own guns.
