The NRA's New Friend

Having followed the National Rifle Association's relationship with Sen. John McCain for years, it is mildly amusing and not at all surprising to watch as the NRA leadership embraces Sen. McCain. Perhaps embrace isn't the right word -- it's more of that scrunched fingered-chest-butted out hug that you reserve for a cooky, spooky aunt or uncle. Or -- this type of hug.

Today, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre told the AP, ""We've had our disagreements, everybody knows it. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on those. We're not foolish enough to ignore the vast areas of agreement in which John McCain has been a friend to gun owners."

Not just disagreement. Here's how the NRA's in-house magazine characterized John McCain in 2001:



The same article noted that McCain was the poster boy for Americans for Gun Safety, a centrist group set up in part to oppose NRA's political dominance and a group the NRA dismissed as a sham front for pro-gun-control types. They also cited his support for closing the "gun show loophole" and his crusade for campaign finance reform. A year later, the NRA folks morphed McCain's face into Joe Lieberman's -- quite unflatteringly.



Well -- McCain supports closing the gun show loophole and still embraces his campaign finance reform legislation. But the NRA's dislike has considerably diminished, a consequence of choosing the lesser of two evils (which the NRA, in the past, has not done in the presidential race) and McCain's impending nomination. (The NRA has maintained that it is not a winky-wing subsidiary of the Republican Party despite all appearances to the contrary).