(from Harry Schneider, PA Sportsmen’s Association)

Commentary

Moms’ March Had One Degree

Of Separation From Clintons

By Lisa Schiffren, a full-time mother and a member of the board of the

Independent Women’s Forum.

Motherhood is one of the things politicians are most eager to co-opt. So

Americans flipping on the TV yesterday were subjected to endless coverage of

righteous marchers declaiming earnestly about the evils of guns, and led by

those towering moral leaders, Rosie O’Donnell and Hillary Clinton.

Donna Dees-Thomases — The march organizer isn’t just another mom.

Donna Dees-Thomases, the organizer of the Million Mom March, is a putative

political newcomer. She likes to be considered, as Time magazine described

her, “a housewife and mother of two young children, from New Jersey.” And

she appears to be an intuitive genius at politicizing motherhood.

For one thing, even though a mere 100,000 marchers were expected, the

“Million Mom” moniker conveyed intimidating political heft. For another, she

rustled up vast press coverage, almost all entirely sympathetic and willing

to take her assertions at face value. She pitched perfectly to potential

marchers and the media by talking about the “frustration of moms” at gun

violence, and describing her willingness to spend the past year organizing

this movement as a pure outgrowth of her “maternal instinct.”

Indeed, in myriad interviews, Mrs. Dees-Thomases attributed her crusade to

watching the terrible footage of small children being led out of the Jewish

Community Center in Granada Hills, Calif., last summer, after a gunman

opened fire in the lobby, killing several kids. She has children that age,

so naturally she immediately reserved the Washington Mall for a march the

following Mother’s Day.

I’m embarrassed to say that, even though I am a mom with children at a

Jewish preschool, who was also deeply horrified by that shooting, I didn’t

think of organizing a march. It would have been fun, especially if we didn’t

have to drag along the double-strollers, snacks and changing pads. But our

school immediately sent letters advising parents that it was instituting

antiterrorism measures. Given the actual goal of protecting children, that

seemed to be a bit more on point.

You may have guessed by now that Mrs. Dees-Thomases is not precisely a

housewife. She is currently on leave from her job as a publicist at CBS,

where she now works for David Letterman and previously worked for Dan

Rather. That explains her media savvy and contacts. It also happens that she

is the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases, Hillary Clinton’s closest friend,

long-time political strategist, heavy-handed enforcer, and, frequently,

attorney of record. Ms. Thomases is known to have been summoned to Arkansas

to scare off women threatening to sue or squeal on President Clinton. She

was Mrs. Clinton’s attorney through part of the Whitewater scandal,

reportedly so that Hillary could confide in her without fear of subpoena.

She was active in both Clinton campaigns, and is said to be influential in

this year’s Senate campaign. Oddly — or not — only two of the two-dozen

newspaper articles I read on the march beforehand mentioned this interesting

relationship.

Call me believer in the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, but my guess is that

Donna Dees-Thomases didn’t act alone: The event was a White House put-up

job. When a novice organizes a major media event and putative “grassroots

movement” perfectly orchestrated to promote an issue that the Clinton

administration, senatorial candidate Mrs. Clinton, and presidential

candidate Al Gore wish to raise during this election cycle, it is worth

noting that the organizer, Mrs. Dees-Thomases, has but one degree of

separation from the Clintons. It is stunning that almost no reporters have

asked what advice and assistance Mrs. Dees-Thomases received from her

sister-in-law, and from the Clinton White House.

Why, you may wonder, is gun control so important to the permanent Clinton

campaign? As an issue, it has two fabulous attributes. It is essentially,

free, unlike policies that win votes by redistributing the money of the

voting classes. And, more importantly, it is a quintessential gender-gap

issue. Democrats depend on what has been an almost automatic majority of

women’s votes. But Mrs. Clinton has actually been behind among women voters

in New York, and George W. Bush appears to be giving Al Gore more of a run

than Republicans usually do for women’s votes nationwide.

It happens that a large majority (73%, according to some surveys) of women

are in favor of additional gun controls. So ginning up the issue — starting

by creating unfounded fears about the likelihood that middle-class children

will be killed by random gun violence — is a ploy to win those necessary

women’s votes.

The Million Mom March has all of the hallmarks of a classic Clinton issues

campaign. As with health care in 1992, they are manufacturing a crisis where

there is none, shamelessly exaggerating and distorting the facts. Contrary

to what we heard intoned solemnly and repeatedly this weekend, gun deaths

among children are at an all-time low, despite the fact that gun ownership

is at an all-time high. Those deaths have declined roughly 30% in the past

decade, due largely to enforcement of current laws and effective gun-safety

campaigns.

The Million Mom ladies and the Clinton administration claim that “thirteen

children die every day from guns.” But fewer than 3% of them are under 10

years old. Seventy percent of the dead children are 17-19 year-olds killed

in gang fights. That is not a happy picture — but it’s far from the

innocent toddler carnage the Clintons want you to envision.

To be sure, any needless death of a child is tragic. But, as all mothers

know, the world is full of useful things that are safe when used properly

but that must be kept from small children. Kitchen equipment, cleaning

liquids and power tools come to mind. And of course, thousands more children

die in car, swimming pool and bicycle accidents than from guns.

The gun control mantra is not going to solve problems as complicated as

those that have contributed to the much-publicized child killings over the

past year. Neo-Nazi violence in California, teenage alienation and evil at

Columbine, Colo., and the myriad social pathologies that led a damaged

six-year-old in Michigan to kill a classmate, will not yield to trigger

locks and waiting periods.

Life is a little more complicated than the moms on the mall and the Clinton

campaign want us to believe. But your mother told you that, didn’t she?