Manchin & Toomey Show Us the Threat From Within

These two senators conspired to create their compromise on Universal Background Checks, which was little more than a scheme to outlaw guns on the installment plan.

The agreement they reached was truly a compromise, a shameless compromise of our liberties and a deliberate shredding of the Constitution.

Once upon a time, Pat Toomey was known as a Conservative and Joe Manchin was portrayed as a foil to Jay Rockefeller, the senior senator from his state, who often votes against the interests of coal miners in West Virginia, an industry which is critical to the state’s economy.

However, Joe had scarcely removed his hand from the Bible and finished reciting his oath before he began attacking the deeply-held views of a majority of those who elected him.

Along with it, Manchin also thumbed his nose at the NRA, a group which had given him an “A+” rating in the past, a fact that was often touted in his long-forgotten campaign ads.

And with a six-year term now in his back pocket, Manchin knows he won’t have to pretend to have the backs of West Virginia gun owners until it’s much closer to his next reelection bid.

West Virginia, the place of my birth, has a long and storied history of electing those who routinely betray their best interests.

When Manchin was running for office, one of his most ballyhooed campaign ads showed him shooting a rifle at an environmental bill.

But now that the former governor has been successfully elected to a six-year term, it would appear that Manchin now has the Second Amendment in his crosshairs.

And all of us with it

Image: Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV); source: http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/one_item_and_
teasers/Manchin_Joe.htm: author: United States Congress; public domain

Lower Image: Senator Pat Toomey; author: Gage Skidmore; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license