Ted Cruz’s Artfully Exaggerated Gun-Rights Record [More]WoG regulars know I have concerns about Cruz. This isn't one of them. He played a part in something larger. I think everyone understands that.
Everyone except the "reporters' at The Trace, who seem to be obsessed with NRA. And no wonder -- they're the finest propagandists Bloomberg money can buy.
That said, Evan Nappen points to an important consideration the hit piece raises about caveats and what they have enabled.
You don't need to give away the farm to claim your cow. Or at least you shouldn't have to.
[Via Mark L]
One point to keep in mind is that Cruz wasn’t an independent crusader here — he was a lawyer working for his client, and his client was NRA. Those of us who have been following the movement understand that NRA’s preferred stance during those years was to exhibit extreme cowardice at the possibility of gun-issue litigation in high federal courts. They were deathly afraid that the time was not (more like never) ripe, and there was always too big a risk of a losing precedent. The gist of Cruz’s plea was exactly the approach favored by the NRA at the time, and precisely what anyone should expect of the NRA’s law firm. They took exactly the same tactic with Heller, at one point actively trying to sabotage it by combining it with another case, before it got its own legs despite NRA’s vacillation… then they took credit for the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteNow, taking exception to how Cruz is rewriting his place in history after the fact is an entirely separate and valid issue.