AZ Congressional Delegation

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell was a key legislative aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. From 1989 to 1991, he served as senior advisor to Senator Moynihan. From 1992 to 1993, he was staff director of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, then chaired by Senator Moynihan. From 1993 to 1995, he was staff director of the United States Senate Committee on Finance, once again under Senator Moynihan’s chairmanship. O'Donnell has a deep respect for the history of the U.S. Senate and knows its institutional norms.

In his Rewrite segment on Tuesday, Lawrence O'Donnell heaped much-deserved opprobrium on Sens. Max  Baucus (D-MT) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) for their cowardly votes last week to filibuster to death consideration of the Manchin-Toomey background checks amendment.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

You may have read about this in the Arizona Republic last week. Caren Teves’ son Alex died during the Aurora theater mass shooting while
shielding his girlfriend from the gunman’s bullets. She wrote a letter
to Sen. Flake, in which she “invited him to our home to sit in our
son’s chair, his empty chair” and “feel the emptiness and have dinner
with us and discuss” guns. Senator Told Shooting Victim’s Mother He Supported Background Checks, Then Voted Against Them:

In response, Flake sent Teves a hand-written letter claiming that he
supported one of the most important steps Congress could take to improve
gun safety — expanding background checks:

Just days after raising Teves’ hopes that the Senate would act to prevent
future mothers from experiencing the same pain inflicted upon her
family, Flake voted against background checks.
Flake claimed to oppose the bill because it “would expand background
checks far beyond commercial sales to include almost all private
transfers — including between friends and neighbors,” but this claim is false.

by David Safier Caren Teves, whose son Alex died in the Aurora movie theater shooting, sent a letter to Jeff Flake inviting him to her home to sit in her son’s chair and discuss guns. Flake responded saying he supports background checks. Later, he joined the Senate filibuster blocking the bill which would have passed … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was herself the victim of a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011, responds to the shameful cowardice of the U.S. Senate in this op-ed today in the New York Times. A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip:

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

President Barack Obama arrives to participate in a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in Washington, about measures to reduce gun violence. With Obama is former Rep. Gabby Giffords, left, and Mark Barden, the father of Newtown shooting victim Daniel. Photo by Associated Press/Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Speaking in the Rose Garden after today's Senate vote, President Obama used the "bully pulpit" and expressed righteous indignation about the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey background checks amendment as parents of victims of last year's
Newtown school shootings and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords looked
on. Obama: Senate background check failure 'shameful':

"I see this as just Round One," Obama said in his Rose Garden remarks.

"All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," he said
sternly, urging backers of gun control to continue the fight. 

Slamming
critics who said that victims were used as "props," Obama said that
their voices and experiences should have been welcomed, adding that gun
lobbyists "willfully lied" about the consequences of the background
check measure.