Politics

Pennsylvania Senator, Pat Toomey, long a darling of the right wing of his party is likely to take heat from conservatives on his helping to broker a deal on gun sale and background checks. Political watcher, Dr. Terry Madonna told WNPV some wont like the bill, but other won’t like the politics.

“It’s a victory of some sort. The President’s credibility, given Colorado and Connecticut and the high profile events he’s done, this is important to the President.”

Madonna says, whatever the fallout, it’s likely to be softened by polling, which indicates 94-percent support for universal background checks in Pennsylvania. Madonna was a guest on the Wednesday Edition of Comment Please by Univest on AM1440 WNPV.

A one-time Army Ranger, who served several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq is running for congress in the 8th Congressional District. Kevin Strouse says, the gridlock in Washington is at an all time high and he says he wants to be a part of the solution to move things in a forward position. Strouse says, the problems the nation is facing are numerous, including the issue of gun control, but he says progress is constantly being held-up.

“And we still haven’t been able to make progress on that because of the gun lobby. You take a problem where there seems to be a straight forward solution and we can’t make any progress there, then you start thinking about some of the more deeper problems of the country. Facing some of the economic issues and the economic recovery, and the situation looks pretty bleak right now unless we change the tone of the conversation down there.”

Strouse, a resident of Bensalem, is married and has two children. After his military service in the army rangers, he joined the C-I-A for eight years, also serving in the middle east in a counter-terrorism unit.

Montgomery County State Representative, Mike Vereb doesn’t think Pennsylvania will follow other states that are adopting new gun control laws. Vereb is a Republican, but doesn’t think it’s completely a partisan issue.

“Governor Rendell came in front of the Judiciary Committee under a Democrat led house and brought police officer’s widows, police offices that had shot on duty and survived and they still could not get this legislation out of committee.”

Vereb, who is a former police officer, says laws need to focus on keeping guns away from criminals, not making it more difficult for law abiding citizens to buy or sell guns.

Threats against the U-S and its allies and threats of more missile tests continue from North Korea. Political science professor at Gwynedd Mercy College, Josh Weikert says, North Korea’s acts of intimidation point  to do what’s going on internally.

“Most of what we are seeing here is an attempt by
Kim Jong Un to establish his position, sort of reinforce his image in his country because he’s only 30-years-old. He’s only been in power for not nearly two years. In a state like North Korea they depend so much on that kind of charismatic leadership, just because of their autocratic governing system.”

Weikert says, China has been critical of North Korea. China is North Korea’s closet ally. Federal lawmakers, including Senator John McCain are pressuring China to do more to diffuse what McCain says is becoming a serious situation. the U-S has more than 28-thousand troops in South Korea.