deal without in any way imposing on or impinging on the rights of the second amendment. biden met yesterday with representatives of the national rifle association which has added 100,000 new members since the shooting in newtown, connecticut. from the gun lobbyist s perspective, the meeting did little to bridge differences on the issue. it wasn t so much an open-ended, it was a polite but not a real conversation. it was two sides stating their positions and then leaving. so the administration was able to check the box and say they had talked to the representatives of firearms owners, and the groups that support the second amendment, and now they were going to try to proceed with what they wanted to do. so gail, what did you make of the nra going to joe biden s place? well, that was fun. i m sure they had a good time together. i mean, you knew what was going to happen because the nra will not talk about this issue. they just won t go there at all.
like that. they re answering he s answering those questions, and he s going to be meeting with these senators. i think there is certainly a wing within the republican party that s not going to support him. and i think that raises a question about how effective he could be as defense secretary, particularly if he s going to be the one tasked with remaking the defense department and cutting the budget at a time when the budget demands it in the view of many but where he s going to need some republican support to do that. gene, what have you found in washington joe was talking earlier about the talk on capitol hill is that he has had some sharp elbows along the way. mm-hmm, yeah. and there s, you know, i don t know if the word legitimate is but there may be some critique of how well he could be in terms of effectively working with all the facets of washington, including congress. well, you certainly usually see when a former senator is nominated for a cabinet position, you
israel when that s certainly not the case. so it s imprecise. you know, there are some jews who think, you know, it smacks of some anti-semitism. certainly all of those, you know, folks who have known chuck hagel think that s not the case at all. and even those who may not like the phrase don t have a problem with him, you know, speaking tough about an american ally, about some policies. i mean, again, this becomes a narrower argument about a certain band of republicans and democrats, but mostly republicans who would argue, hey, this is not a stalwart supporter of israel. and what are the ramifications of that in terms of policy with regard to iran or hamas or other countries that may pose a threat to israel? hey, gene, do you think it interesting as i think it interesting that the greatest vice president in the history of vice presidents, joe biden, is finally getting some well-deserved praise for being more than mr. malaprop, his role
sort of the brunt of late-night jokes. now, he will be the brunt of a few more late-night jokes because he s going to say something, i m sure, tomorrow or the next day that makes everyone cringe, but he s so smart and he s so talented. he s joe biden. obama that the ceo, the mark of a great ceo or the top three or four appointees, hillary clinton, joe biden, that s what a great ceo does. it s the people around them. david? mika, i was just going to make this historical point which is kind of ironic. it was joe biden back in 1994 who told democrats who were trying to get an assault weapons amendment into his crime bill right. that they shouldn t do that. that they were going to tank his crime bill, and they were doing all of these good things. and ultimately dianne feinstein and others prevailed in this amendment. they got the assault weapons ban through. now here he is to recommend a package of legislation where they understand they ve got to be careful. they want to be
magazines. they re going to talk about background checks, but they re going to try for something that they think is possible and reach as broad a possible coalition. and that means that the assault weapon isolation that dianne feinstein has been pushing and you have similar legislation in the house, the white house does not think that it can achieve that. what do you think, joe? it s all about counting votes at the end of the day. richard wolffe, do they have the votes? it depends for what, they ri? the politics is just too difficult for everyone in congress. democrats have to do something meaningful. republicans have to move off of what has been basically a no position on any type of gun measures. you know, you ve got such an emotional weight. i know everyone says, well, it s all fading. i don t believe that for a minute. these families are organized. you ve got mayor bloomberg s organization behind as well. very powerful tigsi inadvertisi.