In my column in the latest issue of Gun Week, I wrote about union member Mike Day and the pro-Obama union postcards and e-blasts that were sent to potential labor voters who might have gone for McCain because of concerns for their gun rights. The message from Day was simple:

“I want to protect two things, my job and my guns, that’s why I’m voting for Barack Obama,” was the message from Day.

Well, even before Obama takes office, there are clear signs that Day and thousands, if not millions of others, may lose both.

On the economic front there has been no encouraging news for Day, and so far there is little evidence that an Obama administration, with control of the Senate and House, has any new policies that might help in spite of almost daily new headlines that the Obama team is working feverishly to resolve the nation’s, and the world’s, economic woes.

Waxman
In fact, the prospects there look gloomier with the announcement that Rep. Henry Waxman of California—another well known anti-gunner—will take over the chairmanship of the critically important House Energy and Commerce Committee previously chaired by Rep. John Dingell of Michigan.

But the real scary news for Day concerns his guns—and ours.

First, Obama picked a veteran Clinton Administration insider, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, to be his chief of staff, a job that essentially makes him more powerful than anyone else in the White House except the incoming president himself. Gun Week reported on Emanuel’s nomination in the last issue, and we reported about his long-time devotion to the anti-gun cause. But we didn’t then have the words of Sarah Brady to put further anti-gun context to Obama’s chief of staff.

“I was so excited when I heard that Rahm Emanuel was going to be the Chief of Staff in the Obama White House,” Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote to her members.

“Jim and I know Rahm from when we worked closely with him to pass the Brady Bill.

“As our ‘go to’ guy, we saw a man with integrity and dedication, who cared deeply about the cop on the street and those who were victims of gun violence,” Brady continued.

Then Brady mentioned Emanuel’s support for “strengthening the Brady criminal background checks, banning military-style assault weapons, strengthening law enforcement, and closing the ‘Terror Gap.’ ”

“We look ahead with great optimism,” she added, before asking for a donation to the anti-gun cause.

Of course, what Brady was talking about in the anti-gun agenda was restoring the five-day wait for handgun purchases and requiring background checks for private sales at gun shows, re-establishing a broader and permanent federal ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns as well as full capacity magazines, abolishing the Tiahrt Amendment so Mayor Bloomberg and his cronies can crank up lawsuits against the firearms industry, and adding more people to the list of prohibited persons who may never legally own a firearm for hunting or any other purpose.

I’m sure that Brady and her pals have a lot more schemes up their sleeves, but these alone should make Mike Day worry about his vote for Obama.
Holder

The second big shoe fell when Obama nominated Eric Holder as the nation’s first black attorney general—an historic appointment but one with some potential political problems over a 2001 pardon (see Dave Workman’s report on Page 1 of this issue).

Holder, 57, also has some anti-gun credentials that should further delight Sarah Brady and friends. He is reported to have met President-elect Barack Obama only four years ago, but the Bronx-born son of a Barbados immigrant quickly won a seat in the Democrat’s inner circle. If he becomes the next chief US law enforcement officer, as seems likely, some observers expect that Holder will try to win back the public’s confidence in the Justice Department—an agency whose fiercely independent image has been tarnished during the past two administrations. Others believe he will be a powerful advocate for more gun control initiatives, such as those proposed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

Holder was an assistant to Janet Reno during the Waco fiasco and the Elian Gonzales mess. His testimony during the Waco hearings in the Senate seemed to be evasive and exculpatory.

Holder helped lead the team that selected Sen. Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate, according to Newsmax.com. Throughout his career as a judge, a prosecutor and a defense attorney for the prestigious law firm Covington & Burling, Holder’s independence rarely has been questioned. But one of his final acts as President Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general in 2001 could come back to haunt him as he seeks Senate confirmation for the Justice Department’s top job.

On the last day of Clinton’s term, Holder told the White House he was “neutral, leaning toward favorable” for a presidential pardon for Marc Rich, a prominent Democratic Party donor and wealthy commodities dealer who had spent years running from tax charges.

It turned out to be a bad call. The pardon provoked howls of protests and a congressional investigation over whether it was politically motivated. Holder later publicly apologized for what he called a snap decision and said he would have advised against it had he paid more attention to the case.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will vote on Holder’s nomination, said the pardon “would be a factor to consider.”

With Democrats in control of the Senate, however, Holder’s confirmation would be virtually assured.

Since Obama’s election, Holder has privately told colleagues he is concerned the Rich pardon would bloody his nomination hearings and further strain the department’s credibility. Still, he is widely respected in legal circles and among Justice Department career lawyers.

Holder’s nomination in the Democrat-controlled Senate seems assured. In fact, the Senate can be expected to rubber-stamp every nomination the president-elect sends down Pennsylvania Avenue. The Republican majority may speak against confirming some of those cabinet nominations, but no one expects anything but a quick confirmation of people like Holder, or Hillary Clinton, the new Secretary of State in waiting. The reason is simple: the Democrats will have an overwhelming majority in the Senate, if not a filibuster-proof super majority.

Stevens Loses
Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history and a long-time member of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) board of directors, narrowly lost his re-election bid as the last 24,000 absentee ballots were counted on Nov. 18, marking the downfall of a Washington political power and Alaska icon who couldn’t survive a conviction on federal corruption charges.

His defeat by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority and those two seats are still within Democrats’ reach. Recounting will decide one of those seats in Minnesota and a runoff election on Dec. 2, after we go to press with this issue, will decide the other in Georgia. Democrats now hold 58 seats, when two independents that align with Democrats are included. That duo includes Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Democrats so far have picked up seven Senate seats in the Nov. 4 election and are hoping to make it nine by the middle of December.

As this issue goes to press, the recount is still in progress in Minnesota to decide the close race between comedian and leftist political commentator Al Franken and incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. In the Georgia runoff, NRA leaders have been among those stumping for re-election of incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss against Democrat Jim Martin.

Stay tuned. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.