Not so fast. The press and Democratic Party operatives may be painting President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden as a one-two punch of effective gun control strategy on Capitol Hill. But at least one Republican Party tactician says it ain’t all that — and Mr. Biden’s behind-scenes operations are largely exaggerated.
Mr. Biden has been busy in Congress, reaching out to former colleagues, mounting a near-daily campaign to rein in Republicans on the gun control issue and using a closed-door approach to find bipartisan consensus, The Hill reports. And he’s getting a lot of kudos for the efforts.
“President Obama is the strategist, and Vice President Biden is the tactician,” said Democratic consultant Chris Kofinis, in The Hill. “I think the president is laying out the frame, the message, the vision about where we need to go and why. The vice president understands how to make that happen. You have two interlocking pieces that work very well together.”
But Republican strategist Ken Lundberg says to slow the praise. Mr. Biden is hardly that effective, and plenty in the GOP aren’t buying his political message — which is wrapped in criticism and condemnation.
“His effectiveness depends on how you define his role,” Mr. Lundberg said, in The Hill. “So far, his work has been to rally allies and berate opponents. In that role, he’s very effective but, as for reaching out to the other side, he’s impotent. He’s breaking no new ground and that’s probably by design.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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