Joe Scarborough is outraged, OUTRAGED, that any senator could have opposed the gun bill which went down to defeat.
Oops! That was a month ago and it now appears that Scarborough is having second thoughts on this since he wondered aloud today if the government could be trusted with performing background checks in the light of the revelations of the IRS scandal in which that agency targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups. First let us look at Scarborough in the video below the fold in full outrage mode in April when his over the top anger at the gun bill opponents was chronicled by NewsBusters' Executive Editor, Matt Sheffield.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You look at the Democrats and the Republicans, the Democrats are going to be facing an uphill battle in primary fights, I suspect some will be defeated and that will change the calculation on gun votes for those Democrats who cowered in the corner and were afraid to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and convicted felons. They will pay a heavy price in the primary.
For all the Republicans, perhaps some are in safe districts that won’t be touched-- but those who are not in the safest districts, this is going to be a key issue in 2014 and beyond and they’re going to pay for their votes as well. Again, you don’t ignore 90 percent of the vote, what the voting population wants when you’re talking about the safety of Americans, the safety of our families, the safety of our communities, the safety of our schools; the safety that we feel when we send our kids to malls, to churches, to college.
This is–Mike Allen, and I had said before, and you picked it up in the Playbook [a morning email newsletter edited by Allen], I just wanted to be clear, I said this party is headed towards extinction, I’m talking about the 2013 version of the Republican Party. A new Republican party, though, is going to come in its place. This sort of extremism is going to be called out by the 90 percent. We’re the 90 percent and we’re going to win. And this is just the first battle.
MIKE ALLEN (Politico): Now Joe, there’s one particular excuse from several senators that the White House said seemed to be decisive and I’d love to get your view of it. A couple of senators, both parties, said to the White House, we could be with you on guns, or immigration, or gay marriage—we could even be with you on two of those three, three at once is just too much.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: What? What? That’s the excuse?
ALLEN: That was the excuse.
SCARBOROUGH: I never looked, I never looked at a bill and said ‘Well gee, I’m going to vote against because it’s the right thing to do but I’ll vote for the other—’ I mean you, when you, if you’re going to have to choose which bill to follow, it seems to me that, first of all involves safety, secondly, involves keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists, third, involves keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and has 90 percent of the American people behind them. This was a group of lawmakers cowering against, away, from the NRA, an organization that supported these background checks just a decade ago. And it bears repeating that several, several, Sam Stein, of these senators that voted against background checks to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and gang members and violent rapists supported it not so long ago. [...]
It is unbelievable that for some reason, my party is now defining “conservative” as the promotion of gun trafficking for gang members across America. And my party is now, for some reason, embracing criminals and violent offenders—
Well, it now appears that those gun bill opponents were wise not to trust the government with the background checks. And who says that perhaps the government can't be trusted to perform that service? Why, Joe Scarborough himself as you can see in this video of today's Morning Joe show:
SCARBOROUGH: I have been saying for months now, everybody knows this, that I believe we need background checks. I believe that after Newtown, after Chicago, we need background checks. My argument has been, don't worry, background checks aren't going to lead to a national registry. The government is never going to create a national registry. Right? And there is even something there that says its a felony. I don't even have to complete my sentence, do I? My argument is less persuasive today because of these scandals. Because people will say, hey, if they do that with the IRS asking people what books you read then how can I trust them with information about my Second Amendment rights? This is devastating. This IRS scandal is devastating! All across the board as Chuck said. Immigration reform, background checks, you name it, it's a devasting scandal.
And would it be "devastating" to Joe's ego if he apologized to those same senators he slammed a month ago for not putting their blind trust in the government on background checks?
