Leahy not optimistic about future of gun control bill

Sen. Patrick Leahy, accompanied by his wife Marcelle — and entourage of bodyguards — were on a swing through southeastern Vermont, spending a night at Springfield’s venerable Hartness House Inn.

http://rutlandherald.com/article/20130317/NEWS01/703179930

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Leahy not optimistic about future of gun control bill By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer | March 17,2013 Rutland Herald Sen. Patrick Leahy, accompanied by his wife Marcelle, is interviewed over breakfast Saturday at the Miss Bellows Falls Diner on subjects ranging from gun control to federal budget cuts. BELLOWS FALLS — Landmark gun control legislation may have been passed by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week, but its chairman said Saturday its ultimate success is far from certain. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who has spent close to 40 years rising through the power ranks in the nation’s capital, knows how to count votes. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 10-8 along strict party lines to advance a gun control bill that reinstates a ban on assault weapons, includes a ban on high-capacity magazines, and calls for enhanced background checks for gun buyers. To Leahy, himself a gun owner who does some target shooting while home in Vermont, the changes are common sense. In this state, you can’t go hunting with anything larger than a six-round clip, he said. “In Vermont, we give deer a chance. I think we should give people a chance,” Leahy said during an interview over breakfast Saturday at the Miss Bellows Falls Diner. Leahy said a measure against illegal gun trafficking would likely be one of the new provisions to pass the full Senate, as would closing a loophole allowing a person to buy a gun for someone who is currently banned from such a purchase. He said so-called straw purchases, “when someone buys 25 handguns legally, and they promptly turn up in illegal hands,” would likely be banned. “The problem is the law is so vague,” he said. “Some descriptions are overly broad.” The Senate Judiciary Committee is ground zero for many priorities of the 113th Congress: gun control, immigration reform, the use of unmanned drone aircraft. This year has already seen one big success for Leahy, the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, which he wanted expanded to protect gay couples and Native American women. Leahy is taking the long view on the current bipartisan battles in Congress, saying that history — courtesy of the recent movie “Lincoln” — shows clearly that partisanship is nothing new. Leahy has seen the movie twice. “Why, they even caned a senator,” he said, referring to the 1856 caning of Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who was brutally attacked by a member of the U.S. House over a speech Sumner made against slavery. Sumner, although beaten into unconsciousness on the floor of the Senate, did survive and remained a senator for another 18 years. Leahy said when he was first elected, he was the most junior senator and yet was invited to late-night talking sessions that smoothed the path of many contentious legislative battles. Back then, he said, it wasn’t unusual to see Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Hubert Humphrey sitting on a couch together telling jokes. Now, he said, instead of talking, people are under constant pressure to raise money. Leahy said he’s glad President Obama is reaching out to members of Congress in a more social way. “I’m glad he’s doing it, and I urged him to do it,” he said. Life has changed for Leahy with the passing of the Senate’s most senior member, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, in December. Leahy travels with a large entourage these days. At the Miss Bellows Falls Diner on Saturday, a group of U.S. Capitol Police kept watch over Leahy, the nation’s senior senator who is now third in line to the presidency. But the officers were more low-key than the stare-through-you Secret Service agents who are assigned to protect the president and vice president. Leahy and his wife Marcelle, his constant traveling companion, both ordered oatmeal. Leahy had Vermont maple syrup, and poured it on his English muffin as well. “It’s good for you,” he told the waitress. “They work in 12-hour shifts, so it makes it more difficult when we’re here in Vermont,” said Marcelle Leahy, referring to the Capitol Police. Leahy said he was approached by the Capitol Police an hour before Inouye died last December to make the new security arrangements, since Leahy was about to become president pro tem of the U.S. Senate, and third in the line of succession behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner. Not bad for a former newspaper delivery boy for the old Montpelier Argus. “I told them I didn’t want it, I said, I don’t need any security, ” said Leahy. “I asked, ‘Do I have a choice?’ and they said ‘No.’” Leahy, who has been in the Senate since 1975, famously eschewed what is viewed as the most powerful position in the Senate — chairman of the Appropriations Committee — to remain at Judiciary and the ranking member of Appropriations. “I felt I could better protect Vermont if I stayed at Judiciary,” said Leahy. “And the Constitution.” The Leahys — and entourage — were on a swing through southeastern Vermont, and had spent the night at Springfield’s venerable Hartness House Inn, once the home of a Vermont governor. After breakfast, the Leahys headed back to Brattleboro, where they had been the day before, to Commonwealth Dairy, another of the state’s recent gourmet food success stories which is putting on an addition. After the visit, Leahy and his wife headed north to their home in Middlesex for some high-level government conference calls and maybe some snowshoeing — with his new entourage.