Pelosi's "cold water"

Nancy Pelosi's response to Eric Holder's AWB-renewal comment is generating a bit of commentary of the "porcine aviation" variety, but I'm personally not taking any comfort from it whatsoever.

There is, of course, the obvious: the whole thing was a sham to see how loudly folks would scream. There's little doubt that the House Democrats are well aware of what happened in 1994 and are in no hurry to repeat that poor showing.

Still, I can't help but wonder if Pelosi is simply in favor of releasing the hounds, instead of the normal routine of silly new laws. The BATFE is not known for taking a particularly reasonable approach to enforcement; rather, their efforts are often rife with abusive and unnecessarily punitive methods. It's quite possible that Pelosi envisions an expanded and more aggressive BATFE, which would not be a good thing at all.

No need for harsh new gun control laws if nobody wants to operate a retail gun business. No need for new laws if you can drastically restrict firearms trade through heavy-handed enforcement, intimidation, and FUD.

Politically, this approach kills two birds with one stone: first, it affects the desired outcome of less guns in private hands; second, the blame would be entirely upon the Executive and not on the members of the House of Representatives, who felt the brunt of gun-owning voters' wrath the last time.