| The next day, the two leaders spoke to a joint session of Congress, and the three of us held a press conference to reaffirm our commitment to a comprehensive peace involving all the parties to the Middle East conflict
The Israeli-Jordanian agreement stood in stark contrast to recent terrorist attacks against a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, and others in Panama and London, all of which Hezbollah was believed to be responsible forHezbollah was armed by Iran and aided by Syria in conducting operations against Israel from southern LebanonSince the peace process could not be completed without an agreement between Israel and Syria, Hezbollahs activities presented a serious potential obstacleI had called President Assad to tell him about the Israeli-Jordanian announcement, to ask him to support it, and to assure him that Israel and the United States were still committed to successful negotiations with his countryRabin left the door open to talks with Syria by saying that the Syrians could limit but not end Hezbollahs activitiesHussein responded that not just Syria but the entire Arab world should follow Jordans lead and reconcile with Israel
I closed the press conference by saying that Hussein and Rabin must have put peace in the air all over the worldBoris Yeltsin had just informed me that he and President Meri had agreed that all Russian troops would be withdrawn from Estonia by August 31
In August it gets hot in Washington, and Congress usually leaves townIn 1994, chanel black bucket tote bag Congress stayed in session almost the entire month to deal with crime and health careBoth the Senate and House had passed versions of the crime bill, which provided 100,000 more community police, tougher penalties for repeat offenders, and more funds for both prison construction and prevention programs to keep young people out of trouble
When the conference committee met to resolve the differences between the Senate and House crime bills, the Democrats folded the assault weapons ban into the compromise billAs Ive said, the ban had passed the House as a separate matter by only two votes, in the face of furious opposition by the National Rifle AssociationThe NRA had already lost the fight to defeat the Brady bill and was determined to prevail on this one, so that Americans would retain their right to keep and bear rapid-fire large-magazine weapons designed for one purpose only: to kill a great many people in a hurryThese weapons worked; crime victims shot with them were three times more likely to die than those whose assailants fired regular handguns
The conference decided to combine the ban with the crime bill because, while we had a clear majority for the ban in the Senate, we didnt have the sixty votes necessary to break a certain filibuster by NRA supportersThe Democrats in the conference knew it would be much harder to filibuster the overall crime bill than the assault weapons ban standing aloneThe problem with the strategy was that it forced the House Democrats from rural gucci watch uk pro-gun districts to vote on the assault weapons ban all over again, risking the failure of the whole bill, and putting them at risk of losing their seats if they voted for it
On August 11, the House defeated the new crime bill, 225210, on a procedural vote, with 58 Democrats voting against it and only 11 Republicans voting for itA few of the Democratic no votes were liberals who opposed the bills expansion of the death penalty, but most of our defectors were voting with the NRAA sizable group of Republicans said they wanted to support the bill, including the assault weapons ban, but thought it spent too much money overall, especially on prevention programsWe were in trouble on one of my most important campaign commitments, and I had to do something to turn it around
The next day, before the National Association of Police Officers in Minneapolis, with Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York and Mayor Ed Rendell of Philadelphia, I tried to frame the choice as one between the police and the people on one side and the NRA on the otherSurely we had not reached the point where the only way to keep congressional seats safe was to leave the American people and police officers in greater danger
Three days later, at a ceremony in the Rose Garden, the issue was put in even sharper focus by Steve Sposato, a Republican businessman whose wife had been killed when a deranged man with an assault weapon went on a shooting spree in the San Francisco office building where she workedSposato, who chanel j12 watch had brought his young daughter, Megan, with him, made a compelling appeal for the assault weapons ban
Late in the month, the crime bill came to a vote againUnlike health care, we were working on crime through good-faith bipartisan negotiationThis time we won, 235195, having picked up almost 20 Republican votes by negotiating a substantial cut in the costs of the billSome liberal Democrats were persuaded to change their votes on the strength of the bills prevention programs, and a few more Democrats from pro-gun districts stuck their necks outFour days later, Senator Joe Biden shepherded the crime bill through the Senate, 6138, when 6 Republicans provided the votes necessary to break a filibusterThe crime legislation would have a profoundly positive impact, helping to usher in the largest sustained drop in crime on record
Just before the House vote, Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the billThey argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already cast a very difficult vote for the economic program, and had already defied the NRA once on the Brady bill voteThey said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in NovemberJack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thingBrooks new prada replica handbags had been in the House for more than forty years and was one of my favorite congressmenHe represented a district full of NRA members and had led the effort to defeat the assault weapons ban when it first came to a voteJack was convinced that if we didnt drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners
I was troubled by what Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks had said, but I was convinced that our members could win a debate with the NRA over the issue in their backyardsDale Bumpers and David Pryor knew how to explain their votes to ArkansansSenator Howell Heflin of Alabama, whom I had known almost twenty years, had an ingenious explanation for his support of the crime billHe said he had never voted for gun control, but the crime bill banned only nineteen assault weapons, and he didnt know anyone who owned those weaponsOn the other hand, the bill expressly prohibited restrictions on owning hundreds of other weapons, including every weapon I am familiar with
It was a persuasive point, but not everyone could make it the way Howell Heflin didFoley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrongThe price of a safer America would be heavy casualties among its defenders
Maybe I was pushing the Congress, the country, and the administration too hardAt my press conference on August 19, a reporter asked me a very perceptive question: I was wondering if youve thought about this, that as a President elected with 43 percent, you may be trying to do too much, too gucci handbags discount fas |
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