Robert Novak writes that by departing from the presidential administration’s official position, Cheney is faithfully reflecting the views of President Bush:

The government position filed with the Supreme Court by U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement stunned gun advocates by opposing the breadth of an appellate court’s affirmation of individual ownership rights. The Justice Department, not the vice president, is out of order. But if Bush agrees with Cheney, why did the president not simply order Clement to revise his brief? The answers: disorganization and weakness in the eighth year of his presidency.

Though the administration is clearly disorganized and relatively weak these days, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Bush is nearly as pro-individual right or anti-gun control as Novak seems to think. I also won’t disagree that the State Department has basically run amok and that they aren’t lining up with Bush’s policies, because that’s also quite obvious on a wide range of issues, but, again, this doesn’t mean that Bush is as gun-friendly as Novak claims.

Remember, this is the same president who said he’d sign a renewal of the federal assault weapons ban if Congress sent it to him.

So while Cheney’s break with the administration’s position wasn’t nearly as dramatic as some liked to pretend, and while Bush probably isn’t nearly as pro-ban as some would have you believe, it’s tough to portray him as an ally against the banners. He seems pretty neutral about it all, and has never really convinced me that he’s interested in my constitutional rights when it comes to guns.

Tags: DC

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under DC Gun Ban, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.