Kasich suggests he'd nominate anti-gun judge to Supreme Court, then back-tracks
Ohio Governor John Kasich, fresh off his first (and likely only) victory in a presidential primary, thanks to voters in his home state, is busy making the case that he should stay in the race (despite it being mathematically impossible for him to acquire the required 1237 delegates) because recent polls show that he stands a better chance of defeating Hillary Clinton in November than do either Ted Cruz, who polls about even with Clinton, or Donald Trump, who fares the worst.
It seems Kasich may have been seeking to prop up those general election poll numbers vs. Hillary over the weekend when he voiced criticism of Republicans who are refusing to meet with President Obama's anti-gun Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.
From a Politico.com article entitled "Kasich, if president, would consider nominating Garland to court":
Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Saturday broke with much of his party on Merrick Garland, saying he’d not only consider meeting with President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court — he’d consider nominating Garland himself if he were elected president.
According to NBCNews.com, Kasich said in a "Meet the Press" interview "I think they can go ahead and have a meeting with him. The senators can meet with this gentleman. And then maybe ultimately, if I'm president — which I think we have a good shot at being — maybe he'll be under consideration for the Supreme Court. I don't know. But they ought to meet with him. Show him that amount of respect."
This kind of middle-of-the-road, "can't we all get along," "I'm the candidate who can cross the aisle and work with the other side to get things done" rhetoric is clearly what Kasich believes is propelling him ahead of Hillary in the polls, but he seems to have quickly realized that a November with his name on the ballot is a very, very long way away.
Again, from NBCNews.com:
Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich walked back from comments he made during an interview on "Meet The Press," saying that that if he becomes president, he would not consider Merrick Garland, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, as a potential replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
...
Kasich also said he would consider Garland while speaking to CBS on Saturday.
But the governor stepped back from his comments while speaking to reporters in Utah later Saturday, calling his earlier remarks an attempt at being "polite."
"In an effort to be polite today, I've created little bit of a situation," Kasich said after a campaign event in St. George. "Look, you know, Garland is — I'm gonna have my own picks for the Supreme Court. You know, the fact is, I said that they ought to meet him and talk to him and, you know, I'm not gonna pick somebody who's, you know, obviously not a respecter of the Second Amendment. I don't want people making law and so, nobody should be confused, worked up or upset. He's not gonna be my pick for the Supreme Court."
Kasich noted that his "gut reaction" was that people like Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, had spoken favorably of Garland in the past. "He got a lot of votes. But you know, I'm just trying to be polite sometimes, you know? There's nothing wrong with that. … Everybody just take a chill pill."
Pro-gun voters have a tenuous relationship with John Kasich.
In 1994, then Congressman Kasich not only voted for the now-defunct "Clinton Gun Ban" on so-called "assault" weapons, he conspired to whip up enough Republican votes to ensure its passage. At the time, the Columbus Dispatch observed that "if Congressman Kasich had voted against the Clinton/Schumer Gun Ban, it would not have had enough votes to pass the House. “The measure, passed 216-214..." two years later he voted against an effort to repeal it.
During his career in Congress, he also voted for closing the non-existent "gun show loophole" twice, and voted against an effort to repeal the D.C. gun ban that was eventually found by the U.S. Supreme Court to be unconsitutional. Overall, Kasich's gun rights voting record in Congress was, at best, 50-50 (the NRA once gave him its F grade.) During his first gubernatorial run in 2010, his opponent released a list of Kasich's anti-gun rights votes, while the Kasich campaign posted a list of his pro-gun rights votes.
Earlier on in his career as governor of Ohio, Kasich signed several important pieces of pro-gun rights legislation, but Republicans in the Senate have not sent a pro-gun bill to him since late 2014, when there was finger pointing from multiple places about why certain important provisions were stripped out of HB 234 before it was passed.
While Governor Kasich is clarifying his position on firearms, we would love to hear his position on HB 48, which seeks to remove the long and harmful list of victim zones (places where concealed handgun license-holders are forbidden from discretely carrying firearms), and to reduce penalties for gun owners ensnared in Ohio's complicated concealed carry laws. Also of interest is his position on SB 180, which would protect employees from being fired for having their personal firearm stored in a personal vehicle at work.
Governor Kasich should prove where he stands on these issues by working with the Ohio Senate to pass these bills in time for him to sign them before the Republican National Convention in Ohio this summer.
Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.
Additional Information:
- 1039 reads
