For the second time in the first six months of the Barack Obama administration, Republicans have lost a crucial vote in Congress resulting from an inability to hold the whole caucus in each chamber together. The cap and tax trade bill last month passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a mere seven votes; had all House Republicans opposed the measure, it would have been defeated. Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, an amendment to an important Defense appropriations bill allowing reciprocity in concealed carry gun permits issued by states fell two votes shy of passage. Had Richard Lugar (Indiana) and the retiring George Voinovich (Ohio) voted with their party and twenty Democrats, the full faith and credit of 48 of the 50 states  would have been extended to the right to carry a gun.

Instead, the measure was defeated after Democrats had succeeded in adding a hate crimes amendment to the same bill. What was surprising about the Thune-Vitter amendment vote was not that a score of Democrats were for the measure, but that two Republicans were against it and that their names weren’t Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. When the Obama administration’s $787 Billion dollar pork fest stimulus bill passed the Senate, the three Republicans to vote with the Democratic majority were Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and the now-Democratic Arlen Specter.

To be clear, Republicans are at their best when their tent includes people from a variety of backgrounds and whose perspectives differ from time to time on the details. However, in the history of the party, the right to keep an bear arms has been rather uniformly valued, even when a progressive current was stronger among elected Republicans. Thus, on this issue-an effort to broaden, not curtail, the liberty of American citizens-party unity should not be too much to seek.

The sort of disunity among Republicans witnessed in these recent votes is worrying. Even with the administration’s proposed takeover of the U.S. health care sector losing popularity, the prospect for costly, state-centric “reforms” this year remain strong. This is particularly true when one considers that the two Republicans opposing the Thune-Vitter reciprocity amendment are not facing reelection this year. George Voinovich, as stated previously, is retiring, and Lugar, if he runs again, does not face the electorate again until 2012.

Reasons given for opposing this measure were uniform among members of both parties. Voinovich and Lugar, both former mayors, argued that states and cities should have licensing discretion with respect to guns. Democrats, among them “progressives” such as Richard Durbin and Chuck Schumer, as well as the disappointing Kirsten Gillibrand, took a very unusual (for them) state’s rights line on this important, constitutional issue. Media darling and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg actively lobbied Rustbelt Democrats in a concerted effort to retain his media darling status.

Nonetheless, another reason exists to worry; few in the media will call out these senators on their double standards. It is true that liberal commentators with a poor understanding of their political opposition have jumped on the alleged hypocrisy of Thune-Vitter amendment backers. What remains to be seen, however, is criticism from the responsible press of Democrats almost certainly set to back a federal overhaul of the health care sysem in this country lying outright about their desire and respect for state and local autonomy, particularly in the area of public safety. Such blatant media bias will be a problem for Republicans and others challenging the excesses of the Democratic Party establishment on Capitol Hill.

Last 5 posts by James Kane

• A November to Remember - November 8th, 2010
• On hope and fear - October 18th, 2010
• Expecting Different Results - September 12th, 2010
• A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
• Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010