In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Gun control key issue dividing Dingell, Rivers
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Gun control key issue dividing Dingell, Rivers
One is a lifelong NRA supporter, the other wants tougher laws
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
BY ART AISNER
News Staff Reporter
It has been dubbed a fight within the family, and in just six days, voters of the new 15th Congressional District will decide who wins by prolonging the congressional career of a Democrat who believes she is just getting started, or sending back a veteran who has participated in every significant piece of legislation implemented in the past five decades.
Information from Our Sponsors
Regardless of how they've painted themselves and each other during their contentious campaigns to return to Washington, U.S. Reps. John Dingell and Lynn Rivers both say it's their positions on issues that will sway voters in Tuesday's Democratic primary.
Gun control
The single issue that most polarizes the candidates, and has received the most attention from special interest groups, is guns.
With virtually identical voting records on unions, health care and foreign policy, Rivers has made Dingell's pro-gun history a focal point of her platform and used it as a rallying cry to attract liberals in the new areas of the district.
She holds endorsements from leading national gun-control lobbies and believes initiatives such as mandatory trigger locks, better screening and banning assault weapons for commercial sale are sensible laws that don't infringe on the Second Amendment.
Dingell, a lifelong supporter and former board member of the National Rifle Association of America, has stood by NRA-backed measures to curb gun-control initiatives.
He voted against the initial Brady Bill, the assault-weapons ban, and closing the "gun-show loophole" that limits the time for background checks at popular gun shows around the country.
But his positions appear to be softening in the twilight of his political career.
Last week, about 40 protesters demonstrated outside Dingell's Ypsilanti headquarters, decrying his record and accusing him of distorting it to keep votes from Rivers in a tight race.
Carrying large photos of loved ones, mostly children, killed by guns, the angry group paced along Huron Street chanting for Dingell to stand up to the NRA. Taking it in was Debbie Dingell, the Congressman's wife, from a folding table garnished with donuts and drinks for the morning crowd.
Debbie Dingell, who often campaigns locally while her husband works in Washington, said the proactive gesture was not to sway the crowd but to show them that the Dingell camp wants to hear their views, something the congressman has done a lot more of recently.
"We've listened to people with extreme views from the left and the right and have to find ground in the middle to get something done," she said.
She also said Dingell's coalition-building approach helped muster the Congressional support needed to pass the revised Brady Bill and President Bill Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill, over which he stepped down from the NRA board.
Dingell also maintains support from all the major law enforcement groups in southeast Michigan.
"Handgun control's attacks on John Dingell ring hollow," said John Buczek, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, State Lodge of Michigan. "He has worked for tougher penalties for criminals who commit crimes with guns and to require immediate criminal background checks of anyone attempting to purchase a gun."
The day of the protest also was the day the House Judiciary Committee passed a proposal co-authored by Dingell that would require states to provide the FBI with criminal backgrounds and mental health records for gun buyers.
"Too little, too late," said Khalid Pitts, Michigan director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "He's finally dealt a new district with voters who have a different position and all of a sudden he changes? We support (the proposal) but it does not change decades of a record voting for guns."
The environment
Another endorsement Rivers received early was from the Sierra Club, an environmental organization with national reach and high-profile Hollywood spokespeople.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope said the organization lined up behind Rivers because she won't cow to pressure from big energy and "voted for corporate responsibility before it was the thing to do."
Dubbing her a jewel that needs to be sent back to Washington, Pope said Rivers embodies the new type of leadership needed to hold Congress and corporate America accountable for overlooking industry emissions standards and letting big corporations slowly implement technology that could ease America's dependency on foreign oil. Problems occurred on Dingell's watch, Pope said, despite the landmark environmental legislation the avid outdoorsman piloted through Congress.
Dingell's environmental plaudits include authoring the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, and fighting for federal money to preserve and clean the Great Lakes and the Detroit and Rouge rivers.
Unlike Rivers, Dingell advocates opening some public land for resource exploration, as long as the benefits are clearly identified and the public is paid a fair price. He sees it as a way to stave off further dependence on imported resources, which he saw firsthand * Michigan with double-digit unemployment during the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970s.
Putting jobs before the environment is a common criticism of Dingell, but not one with much merit, said UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker.
"Our union has always said 'no' to those who try to make workers choose between earning a living and breathing clean or drinking decent water," said Shoemaker, whose organization supported Rivers in each of her previous re-election campaigns. "We believe it's possible to craft sensible policies that protect both workers and the environment; so does John Dingell."
Rivers, who spent 15 years as a UAW wife, said the last thing she'd do is hurt working families, but she believes the future of economic growth and industry depends on a company's abilities to convert to more environmentally friendly products or they risk turning away a better-educated public sensitized to environmental issues like never before. The American auto industry also will need to catch up to foreign automakers, who have an enviable track record of adapting.
"In the late 1970s when we needed a new type of car (for better gas consumption) we didn't have it, and the U.S. market was never the same," Rivers said. "We've got to have some fundamental changes or they're going to pass us by."
Workers' rights
As workers' rights advocates, both candidates stand firm against corporate greed and have watched in disgust as corporation after corporation, including campaign contributors, fall under suspicion of fiscal abuse.
Dingell was among the first to call for investigations into Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc., inquiries he would conduct if re-elected and the Democrats retake the House in November. He is campaigning for tougher accounting standards, pension protections and prosecution of executives.
Rivers said the first change in the law must address how accounting firms are allowed to consult for companies for which they also perform fiscal audits. She also stands by legislation she introduced in April, before many of the corporate scandals became public, that would have prevented executives from taking corporate loans from their companies for different business ventures.
Health care
Dingell and Rivers also agree on the need for a national health-care system that incorporates aspects of Medicare and Medicaid while adding prescription drug subsidies for seniors.
Dingell, who helped draft Medicare and the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, is a strong proponent of a patients' bill of rights. Until a serious national dialogue on a new health-care program occurs and fosters the needed support in Washington, he said, the battles on health-care will have to be fought piece by piece.
The first step is ensuring Medicare and Medicaid remain well funded. The next is reforming HMOs so that people can have access to treatments they need, and if not, have legal recourse.
Dingell tells a joke when describing the need for HMO reform, saying the only types of people in America who cannot be sued are foreign diplomats who run you down with a car and HMOs that run you down with costs and inadequate care.
"In either event you're liable to be dead," he said. "I want to see legislation in place that protects you not just from disease but lets you see to it you get the protection you want from your HMO."
Rivers said any health-care reforms must come with options for families with long-term needs and should include stronger federal oversight of nursing homes. She also supports granting doctors anti-trust status so they can collectively bargain with HMOs for the ability to make better decisions for their patients.
One issue close to home for Rivers, who overcame manic depression, is how HMOs legally overlook treatment for people with mental illness.
"It's the last legalized form of discrimination in this country," she said.
"If you have a child who's diabetic and one who's schizophrenic, insurers will cover the diabetes but can make the decision to legally exclude coverage for people with mental illness. It's barbaric, shameful and we need to change it."
Art Aisner can be reached at aaisner@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6823.
c 2002 Ann Arbor News. Used with permission
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-1/1028126449201480.xml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
One is a lifelong NRA supporter, the other wants tougher laws
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
BY ART AISNER
News Staff Reporter
It has been dubbed a fight within the family, and in just six days, voters of the new 15th Congressional District will decide who wins by prolonging the congressional career of a Democrat who believes she is just getting started, or sending back a veteran who has participated in every significant piece of legislation implemented in the past five decades.
Information from Our Sponsors
Regardless of how they've painted themselves and each other during their contentious campaigns to return to Washington, U.S. Reps. John Dingell and Lynn Rivers both say it's their positions on issues that will sway voters in Tuesday's Democratic primary.
Gun control
The single issue that most polarizes the candidates, and has received the most attention from special interest groups, is guns.
With virtually identical voting records on unions, health care and foreign policy, Rivers has made Dingell's pro-gun history a focal point of her platform and used it as a rallying cry to attract liberals in the new areas of the district.
She holds endorsements from leading national gun-control lobbies and believes initiatives such as mandatory trigger locks, better screening and banning assault weapons for commercial sale are sensible laws that don't infringe on the Second Amendment.
Dingell, a lifelong supporter and former board member of the National Rifle Association of America, has stood by NRA-backed measures to curb gun-control initiatives.
He voted against the initial Brady Bill, the assault-weapons ban, and closing the "gun-show loophole" that limits the time for background checks at popular gun shows around the country.
But his positions appear to be softening in the twilight of his political career.
Last week, about 40 protesters demonstrated outside Dingell's Ypsilanti headquarters, decrying his record and accusing him of distorting it to keep votes from Rivers in a tight race.
Carrying large photos of loved ones, mostly children, killed by guns, the angry group paced along Huron Street chanting for Dingell to stand up to the NRA. Taking it in was Debbie Dingell, the Congressman's wife, from a folding table garnished with donuts and drinks for the morning crowd.
Debbie Dingell, who often campaigns locally while her husband works in Washington, said the proactive gesture was not to sway the crowd but to show them that the Dingell camp wants to hear their views, something the congressman has done a lot more of recently.
"We've listened to people with extreme views from the left and the right and have to find ground in the middle to get something done," she said.
She also said Dingell's coalition-building approach helped muster the Congressional support needed to pass the revised Brady Bill and President Bill Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill, over which he stepped down from the NRA board.
Dingell also maintains support from all the major law enforcement groups in southeast Michigan.
"Handgun control's attacks on John Dingell ring hollow," said John Buczek, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, State Lodge of Michigan. "He has worked for tougher penalties for criminals who commit crimes with guns and to require immediate criminal background checks of anyone attempting to purchase a gun."
The day of the protest also was the day the House Judiciary Committee passed a proposal co-authored by Dingell that would require states to provide the FBI with criminal backgrounds and mental health records for gun buyers.
"Too little, too late," said Khalid Pitts, Michigan director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "He's finally dealt a new district with voters who have a different position and all of a sudden he changes? We support (the proposal) but it does not change decades of a record voting for guns."
The environment
Another endorsement Rivers received early was from the Sierra Club, an environmental organization with national reach and high-profile Hollywood spokespeople.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope said the organization lined up behind Rivers because she won't cow to pressure from big energy and "voted for corporate responsibility before it was the thing to do."
Dubbing her a jewel that needs to be sent back to Washington, Pope said Rivers embodies the new type of leadership needed to hold Congress and corporate America accountable for overlooking industry emissions standards and letting big corporations slowly implement technology that could ease America's dependency on foreign oil. Problems occurred on Dingell's watch, Pope said, despite the landmark environmental legislation the avid outdoorsman piloted through Congress.
Dingell's environmental plaudits include authoring the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, and fighting for federal money to preserve and clean the Great Lakes and the Detroit and Rouge rivers.
Unlike Rivers, Dingell advocates opening some public land for resource exploration, as long as the benefits are clearly identified and the public is paid a fair price. He sees it as a way to stave off further dependence on imported resources, which he saw firsthand * Michigan with double-digit unemployment during the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970s.
Putting jobs before the environment is a common criticism of Dingell, but not one with much merit, said UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker.
"Our union has always said 'no' to those who try to make workers choose between earning a living and breathing clean or drinking decent water," said Shoemaker, whose organization supported Rivers in each of her previous re-election campaigns. "We believe it's possible to craft sensible policies that protect both workers and the environment; so does John Dingell."
Rivers, who spent 15 years as a UAW wife, said the last thing she'd do is hurt working families, but she believes the future of economic growth and industry depends on a company's abilities to convert to more environmentally friendly products or they risk turning away a better-educated public sensitized to environmental issues like never before. The American auto industry also will need to catch up to foreign automakers, who have an enviable track record of adapting.
"In the late 1970s when we needed a new type of car (for better gas consumption) we didn't have it, and the U.S. market was never the same," Rivers said. "We've got to have some fundamental changes or they're going to pass us by."
Workers' rights
As workers' rights advocates, both candidates stand firm against corporate greed and have watched in disgust as corporation after corporation, including campaign contributors, fall under suspicion of fiscal abuse.
Dingell was among the first to call for investigations into Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc., inquiries he would conduct if re-elected and the Democrats retake the House in November. He is campaigning for tougher accounting standards, pension protections and prosecution of executives.
Rivers said the first change in the law must address how accounting firms are allowed to consult for companies for which they also perform fiscal audits. She also stands by legislation she introduced in April, before many of the corporate scandals became public, that would have prevented executives from taking corporate loans from their companies for different business ventures.
Health care
Dingell and Rivers also agree on the need for a national health-care system that incorporates aspects of Medicare and Medicaid while adding prescription drug subsidies for seniors.
Dingell, who helped draft Medicare and the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, is a strong proponent of a patients' bill of rights. Until a serious national dialogue on a new health-care program occurs and fosters the needed support in Washington, he said, the battles on health-care will have to be fought piece by piece.
The first step is ensuring Medicare and Medicaid remain well funded. The next is reforming HMOs so that people can have access to treatments they need, and if not, have legal recourse.
Dingell tells a joke when describing the need for HMO reform, saying the only types of people in America who cannot be sued are foreign diplomats who run you down with a car and HMOs that run you down with costs and inadequate care.
"In either event you're liable to be dead," he said. "I want to see legislation in place that protects you not just from disease but lets you see to it you get the protection you want from your HMO."
Rivers said any health-care reforms must come with options for families with long-term needs and should include stronger federal oversight of nursing homes. She also supports granting doctors anti-trust status so they can collectively bargain with HMOs for the ability to make better decisions for their patients.
One issue close to home for Rivers, who overcame manic depression, is how HMOs legally overlook treatment for people with mental illness.
"It's the last legalized form of discrimination in this country," she said.
"If you have a child who's diabetic and one who's schizophrenic, insurers will cover the diabetes but can make the decision to legally exclude coverage for people with mental illness. It's barbaric, shameful and we need to change it."
Art Aisner can be reached at aaisner@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6823.
c 2002 Ann Arbor News. Used with permission
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-1/1028126449201480.xml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
I would encourage all gunowners in this district to go to the polls and vote for Dingell. You can only vote along one party line and while I have never voted democratic I will be voting for Dingell just to keep Lynn Rivers out.
"When one responsibly procures his family's dinner by hand, each meal becomes a sacred rite. It is good, and so is the feast!" --Ted Nugent