Inside the Beltway

John McCaslin

Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation’s capital.

Arkansas hunter
“Do us a favor,” asks the National Rifle Association, hoping President Clinton is reading.
“Tell the president that if he’s going to keep claiming that he has a ‘lifetime’ membership with the NRA to at least get the terminology right. We don’t have such a thing,” says NRA spokesman Bill Powers. “We’ve always called it a ‘life’ membership.”
Try telling Mr. Clinton he has neither. This week he’s insisting all over again that while governor of Arkansas the NRA presented him with a “lifetime” membership. He says he even sported an NRA jacket when the winds blew off the Ozark highlands.
“I think it’s been revoked now,” the president joked after his latest encounter with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre Jr. turned ugly this week.
In November, we reported that Mr. Clinton told guests at a private dinner in Atlanta that he was once a card-carrying member of the NRA.
“Now, you know, I once had a lifetime membership in the NRA. I’ve even got my jacket there,” Mr. Clinton said. “But you listen ?hadn’t anybody missed a day of deer season on what I’ve done ?nobody.”
After an extensive search of NRA records, Mr. LaPierre said Mr. Clinton never had an NRA “membership, he never had a jacket. He made it up.”
“I can’t believe it,” the NRA chief added. “You know, if he’s that delusional maybe he did inhale.”