With apologies to Oscar Wilde, for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) there is a topic that dare not speak its name. That topic is gun control and the Second Amendment.
Sen. Manchin gave an interview to The Journal of Martinsburg, WV that was published on Sunday. At the top of the interview was the following editor's note:
Editor's note: This question and answer session was permitted under the condition that The Journal would not ask questions regarding gun control legislation or the Second Amendment, as requested by the senator's staff.Given that Manchin was elected to a full six-year term in 2012 and won't be up for re-election until 2018, I find this all rather strange. You must wonder what the good Senator has to hide.
His staff is now denying that they made the topic off-limits. They just said he wouldn't answer questions on gun control or the Second Amendment.
The way I see it is that it is irrelevant whether the topic was off-limits or that Manchin would just refuse to answer the question. He still is hiding. He's backtracked a good deal from the earlier positions he took in January. If I were a resident of West by God Virginia, I'd be demanding answers as a constituent to just where Manchin stands now on gun control. He owes his constituents an honest answer and it looks like he is doing everything in his power to avoid doing that.
H/T Instapundit
He's definitely avoiding the issue. When I wrote him a letter in opposition to new gun control, his office sent back a letter that went one for two pages but said nothing. If someone else read the letter, they probably wouldn't have been able to tell what I wrote to him about due to all of the vague wording.
ReplyDeleteThis is very odd from a man who ran a campaign ad showing him shooting a rifle at the cap and trade bill.