Rick Perry Brings Guns To The Last Knife-Fight Before The Iowa Caucuses

Texas Governor Rick Perry (R)
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The debate stage has not been the best place for Rick Perry to make his case to voters. But as the candidates gather for the last time before the Iowa caucuses at a debate in Sioux City tonight, Perry is in the midst of making his final case to Iowans — and getting a little help in that department from a Democrat.

Perry’s currently making a big bus tour through the Hawkeye State, emphasizing — as the campaign puts it — “Faith, Jobs and Freedom.” It’s all about separating Perry from the field by talking a lot about the things that made him so exciting to the GOP before he actually started campaigning for president.

And as the Perry Express rolled into Sioux City today, a Democrat handed him a chance to make that case on an issue he knows quite well: guns. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) wrote an op-ed in today’s Council Bluffs, IA Daily Nonpareil slamming Mitt Romney for his past as a gun control supporter, one of his lesser-known positions from that “progressive views” era.

Here’s a bit of Boswell that gives the full flavor:

During his 1994 campaign Romney claimed he wouldn’t be a hero of the NRA, but in 2006 as he began gearing up his first campaign for president, he decided to become a member. As he ran for president in 2007 he attempted to rewrite history, not only falsely claiming he owned a gun, but even falsely claiming that he had been endorsed by the NRA in his run for governor. Even after being caught on those false claims, he tried to call himself a lifelong hunter of “small varmints.”

There could be no better softball for Perry, who described his life-long fondness for guns this way at a past Iowa stop on the campaign trail:

“It was a long love affair with a boy and his gun, that turned into a man and his gun, that turned into a man and his son and his daugher and their guns,” he said.

The Perry campaign is certainly ready to make the distinction with Romney when it comes to firearms.

“Governor Perry has a long record of clear, consistent, and vigorous support of the Second Amendment, which is obviously something most Republican primary voters are looking for in selecting a candidate,” said Liz Mair, an adviser to the Perry campaign. “This consistent view on the right to bear arms is not shared by all the GOP candidates. Rick Perry is an avid sportsman and has long championed gun rights for law abiding citizens.”

A lot of the action on the debate stage tonight will be between Romney and Newt Gingrich, to be sure. But if the talk turns to guns, look for Perry to take aim.

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