Seattle is a long ways from Washington, D.C. but in the Evergreen State’s far left enclave, liberals are giddy about Wednesday’s announcement by House Speaker Paul Ryan that he will not run for re-election this fall, which some see as a strong hint the House of Representatives is going to change hands.
The Atlantic notes that his departure is just the latest in a growing list of Republicans who have chosen to throw in the towel. It translates to dozens of open seats up for grabs, with the likelihood increasing that Democrats will flip the House of Representatives, probably returning Nancy Pelosi to the Speaker’s chair. That will be bad news for President Donald Trump, and possibly worse news for America’s embattled gun owners, who have seen their rights under non-stop attack since the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
Ballotpedia has a list of congressional incumbents who have announced retirement plans.
As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote at Fox News, “This wake-up call is also for President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Neither they, nor any other Republican, should underestimate how disastrous it would be for their policies and for the country to have a left-wing Democratic majority in the House.
“Under Speaker Pelosi,” Gingrich continued, “there would be two years of investigations, fights over spending (to reduce defense and increase liberal dependency programs), efforts to undo President Trump’s deregulation achievements, and attempts to make new bureaucracies.”
If Republicans retain control of the Senate, which some observers presently see as tenuous, at least Trump’s effort to fill federal judicial seats with conservative, pro-rights judges – and perhaps even another associate justice on the Supreme Court – will survive. That could be good news for Second Amendment advocates whose efforts to reverse restrictive local gun laws have been stymied in some courts, especially in the Northeast and the huge Ninth Circuit.
Out in Seattle, readers of the Seattle-PI.com are brutal. One person, writing under the nickname “jem1,” had this unkind observation: “The first Rat leaving the sinking ship. Retiring into government golden parachute splendor after wrecking the entire governing system. Retirement should be in Leavenworth as a Republican Terrorist Traitor Party Nazi leader violating every aspect of the Constitution.”
By no small coincidence, Seattle is one of the cities that the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms specifically mentioned in its letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, asking him to withhold Justice Department funding from state and local governments that adopt anti-gun policies.
CCRKBA has launched an online petition and it also has a print version that has been mailed out to members and supporters. The online version may be found at www.ccrkba.org/petition.
