Chris Cox, Wayne LaPierre, Oliver North--I've been following Oliver for a long time. Great guy. Three extraordinary champions for the Second Amendment. And I'm a champion for the Second Amendment and so are you. It's not going anywhere. It's under assault. It's under assault, but not when we're here. not even close.
Donald J. Trump speaking to the NRA convention Friday, April 26, 2019.
Lately it hasn't been the Second Amendment under assault, it has been the NRA itself. Mr. Trump is currently attempting to blame the turmoil on the Governor and Attorney General of New York, but in truth the Empire State isn't doing nearly as much to wreck the organization as the NRA's own leadership is.
Obviously Trump hadn't received the memo when he took the stage last Friday. If he had he probably wouldn't have mentioned Ollie North--the Great guy--who would, within a scant couple of hours after the address, be forced to resign as president of the organization.
The problem was, North didn't realize as president of the NRA his job was to be nothing much more than its public face. You know, some famous guy who people could recognize immediately in ads and such. He simply didn't understand he was supposed to leave the day to day ops and money matters to Chief Executive Officer, Wayne LaPierre the way other presidents of the group, such as Charlton Heston, did.
Last week North told the NRA board he was forming a committee to investigate some possible financial hanky panky perpetrated by higher ups in the organization. Privately he told the always bellicose LaPierre he'd discovered some damaging information on him. The dirt included the Chief Executive Officer receiving $275,000 in wardrobe gifts from an NRA vendor over the last 13 years. North reportedly told LaPierre if he'd resign, not only would he avoid the scandal, but North would make sure he got a nice fat pension package.
Silly him.
If we know anything about Wayne LaPierre it is he is more than willing to defend the indefensible no matter how crazy and deadly it is. LaPierre immediately claimed North was running an "extortion," scam on him. The ensuing power struggle was bitter, but short and LaPierre was the survivor.
Meanwhile in Washington D.C. Maria Butina, a native of Siberia, was being sentenced to 18 months in the joint. According to her admission of guilt Ms. Butina and her American boy pal, Paul Erickson, a GOP operative, were working, "...to establish unofficial lines of communications with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics for the benefit of the Russian Federation." One of the groups having power and influence she focused on was the NRA.
Ms. Butina's handler was a Russian national and former government official, Alexander Torshin. Mr. Torshin is--you guessed it--a life time member of the NRA. Erickson, who managed Pat Buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign, has been indicted by the Feds on unrelated charges.
While The Big Orange Guy hasn't publicly commented on the Butina case his old pal and possible blackmailer, Vladimir Putin has. When it came to her conviction and sentencing he told the international media, "It's an outrage. It's not clear what she was convicted of, or what crime she committed."
It is unknown at this time if El Donald will receive a phone call from Vlad regarding Ms. Butina's fate. Let's face it for a 30 year old 18 months, less time already served, is no big deal, besides it isn't like she is a female version of Rudolph Abel. Although, to be honest, there is a certain part of me which wishes Trump would pardon her, further proving his fealty to Putin.
So, ultimately what have we learned? Well, in the end, it might not take hordes of screaming liberals to take down the NRA, or even the ever growing number of parents who have had their kids murdered while solving arithmetic problems in a public school classroom.
Their own internal corruption and coziness with people of a--questionable--nature might eventually do them in. At least that is the hope here, even though it is at best a faint phantasm.
On the upside, sometimes candles don't blow out in the wind. Let's be optimistic for at least a moment, or two--because what finally happened this past weekend is the NRA head honchos exposed themselves to the nation as the amoral, venal, bastards some of us have always believed them to be.
Hey, you take a win whenever you can and these last few days, thanks to the NRA leadership, it felt like we got one.
sic vita est
4-29-19
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