Now that polls show support for his presidential candidacy is down in the low single digits, former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley seems to be making a joke of the whole affair.
But in so doing, he’s not only exposed the fundamental insincerity and duplicity that lies at the heart of his gun-control grandstanding—he’s also made a mockery of the suffering, loss and pain of too many innocent victims.
Last Wednesday, before almost any details were known about the San Bernardino mass murders—practically before the shootout with police had even ended—O’Malley took advantage of the tragedy, making it his own entree to grab his own soundbite, as he tweeted:
Horrifying news out of #SanBernardino. Enough is enough: it’s time to stand up to the @NRA and enact meaningful gun safety laws
— Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) Dec. 2, 2015
To O’Malley, evidently, those poor people are nothing more than stage props for his own self-serving, cynical and ultimately silly presidential campaign.
O’Malley ought to be ashamed of himself.
But it seems Martin O’Malley has no sense of shame. As the Rodney Dangerfield of this year’s Democratic supposedly “presidential” field, it seems O’Malley is willing to stoop to any level, to tell any joke—no matter how bad—to try to get attention and press.
In late October, O’Malley went to Boulder, Colo., during the Republicans’ third presidential debate to try to cop some press by cracking wise. “In these beautiful mountains of Colorado,” O’Malley said, “I am in search of a very elusive being: A Republican candidate with the backbone to take on the NRA.” Following up with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that night, he added to his shtick: “One might emerge here tonight—like Bigfoot!” he said. Cue the canned laugh track.“Can you imagine what we would be doing as a nation if it was ISIL carrying out these attacks, rather than our own people?” — Martin O’Malley, Dec. 1, 2015
What’s clear from all this is that Martin O’Malley wants to talk about the NRA, and make the NRA some kind of illusive bogeyman—like Bigfoot!—so that Martin O’Malley doesn’t have to talk about all of Martin O’Malley’s own failures and contradictions.
Indeed, while he was in Colorado trying to upstage the Republican debate, Martin O’Malley even used an enlarged cover of America’s 1st Freedom magazine with Martin O’Malley pictured on the cover as a prop for Martin O’Malley.
Maybe that’s because Martin O’Malley doesn’t want to talk about the monumental failure of the onerous anti-gun laws Martin O’Malley pushed through as governor of Maryland ... or how those laws—which Martin O’Malley brags about—have ushered in the bloodiest month in Baltimore in 15 years and driven major Maryland employers like Beretta out of the state ... or how Maryland’s anti-gun laws, which Martin O’Malley wants to mandate nationwide, have needlessly cost taxpayers millions of dollars without solving a single crime.
Clearly, there are lots of things Martin O’Malley doesn’t want to talk about. So, what does Martin O’Malley want to talk about? How about more anti-gun laws?
As Hillary Clinton has made her anti-gun proposals and gun-ban promises a central plank of her campaign, Martin O’Malley has tried to upstage her with “me too” pronouncements of his own that go even further.
In an opinion piece on CNN’s website, for example, O’Malley laid out his own gun-ban agenda, the elements of which include banning semi-automatic firearms, which he calls “combat assault weapons;” mandating so-called “universal background checks” that would necessarily require government gun registration; repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (thus exposing America’s firearms industry to the baseless but politically motivated lawsuits that threatened to drive gunmakers out of business just a decade ago); and mandatory training, licensing and fingerprinting of gun owners.
Good luck with that, Marty.
Throughout all of this, O’Malley evokes nothing quite so much as the annoying theatrics of a needy child who, leaping to be seen over the kitchen table, interrupts with, “Look at me! Look at ME! Look at MEEEEEE! I’m on the cover of the NRA magazine, which means I’m even MORE anti-gun than Hillary!”
Fortunately for our Second Amendment rights—if not for Martin O’Malley’s hapless campaign—Americans seem to be growing ever more weary of his tiresome and cynical anti-gun posturing, and are abandoning his candidacy like The Gong Show’s Unknown Comic.
Meanwhile, as the city he oversaw as mayor descends into mayhem and murder, O’Malley makes jokes about becoming a rap singer.
And no, Martin, we don’t think that’s funny.
