Learning from Your Mistake

After years of opposing any common sense gun regulations, Representative Jared Golden (D-ME) has admitted that he was wrong and has changed his position:

Let us tell the tale of two congresscritters, one from the extreme northwest [sic] corner of the Continental 48 and the other just from the extreme in all things.

The extremist is speaker Johnson.

Rep. Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, has long been considered one of those "independent" bipartisan nuisances here in this shebeen. For example, he stood almost alone among Democratic members of the House opposing the most recent attempts to break this country's lunatic attraction to its firearms. Golden voted against expanded background checks, against raising the age requirement for the purchase of assault-type weapons from 18 to 21, and, ultimately, on July 29, 2022, Golden voted against an assault-weapons ban in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo and in Uvalde, Texas in which those weapons were used to deadly effect. Then, this week, the Reaper dropped by Golden's congressional district in Lewiston, Maine. Golden appeared at a press conference with other Maine politicians. After Senator Susan Collins contributed her customary dollop of mushy doubletalk, this is what Jared Golden said.

“The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine. To the victims and their families, I ask for your forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings.”

This admission of responsibility and this acceptance of the necessity of change has "stunned" the national punditry, unaccustomed as it is to confronting these relics from the dusty attic of American politics. Spasms of actual governing catch everyone by surprise, particularly coming from the House of Representatives, which is newly presided over by this guy.

 "This guy," is the Speaker, who blames the shooting on no-fault divorce.

I only give limited props to Rep. Golden.  He should have come to this conclusion BEFORE it was his constituents had died.

BTW, the shooter is dead.