Lincoln Tells Pryor To Find The Middle

It seems almost too odd to be true, but former Sen. Blanche Lincoln is giving some advice to Sen. Mark Pryor on what he should do regarding his upcoming vote on new background checks for gun purchases.  You will recall that Sen. Lincoln lost her re-election bid to Sen. John Boozman in 2010 by over twenty points.

Appearing last night on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Lincoln was asked what Pryor should do about the pressure from both New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the NRA on his vote for or against expanded background checks for gun purchases.

“The point here is that if we want to do something about guns we have got to find consensus. We have got to find a starting place,” said Lincoln. “And we know where people are, so let’s find that place and start working for it.”

Matthews pointed out that he saw the Manchin-Toomey bill expanding background checks to gun shows as a consensus bill, but the NRA opposed it and Pryor voted against it.

“I just think what they have to do is find that place and bring in people like Mark Pryor,” said Lincoln. “Yeah, there’s a middle. There’s got to be. This is an issue that has to be dealt with. I mean look at the faces of those families.”

But surely Pryor is not going to take Lincoln’s advice here is he?  He might.  As Roby Brock reported yesterday, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin sure does sound like he believes he can get Pryor to vote for a new version of his gun control bill that he will be bringing back up.