Control legislation than any other available option. Lets bring in wall street journal columnist and Deputy Editor dan henninger, columnist kim strassel and wall street journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow jason riley. Jason, 97yearold, retired justice, why does it matter . It matters, paul, because the gun control left has regularly said, listen, we are not coming after your guns, we dont want to confiscate firearms, we want reasonable protections put in place, reasonable regulations, Justice Stephens has let the cat out of the bag, we want to repeal the Second Amendment and thats why what he said matters, the problem that the gun control left comes up against after we have one of the tragedies and they want to turn it into another debate on one goal that even well gun ownership is grown in the country, Violent Crime including Violent Crime involving guns has been falling, dramatically, for decades and that is the reality out there. Paul kim, the former justice was on the losing side in heller but it was only a 54 decision, his view of the Second Amendment is that it only applies to militias way back in 18th century. The majority of the Supreme Court took a different view but they didnt outlaw regulation of guns and constitutional amendment i think we all agree passing that to repeal the Second Amendment would be very hard, but you could not simple. But you could, not simple but you could have other Supreme Court judge rulings that eroded that at the margins, why dont you explain . Yeah, thats why this is important, his piece even though the last line about repealing the Second Amendment got all the attention, he spent most of that oped talking about the heller decision and it was a way rfo minding people that this remains their only best shot of eroding gun rights out there because things are not going to pass through congress any time soon, this is a very proSecond Amendment house and senate and so the only option that gun controllers have is to go back to the Supreme Court and their goal and their hope there is to either overturn heller which could take some time but to chip away with other lawsuits and decisions that would, for instance, give officials more ability to ban certain types of guns. Paul right. Or restrict who can have them and thats their main agenda at the moment. Paul dan, that assumes that i think theyll be a new change in the court, not going to happen any time soon. Lets talk about the politics of gun control in the wake of parkland and the wake of big marchs last weekend, do you think politics of gun control changed decisively now in favor of gun controllers again . No, i do not, paul, at least not national level. I dont think the senate, for instance, is eager to take this up and that includes senate democrats. Bernie sanders who is the uber progressive, his position on gun control is that is an issue for the states to decide nor does he think manufacturers of gun should be held liable for crimes committed with guns. Elizabeth warren says shes in favor of what she calls sensible gun control. Why the reluctance . The reluctance understand that they have at least a claim on some states, senate seats now like north dakota,. [inaudible] West Virginia which same as Second Amendment like stephens has will probably lose seats forever. More likely as kim is suggesting, its going to come from below, from cities, passed laws, elevate through the Supreme Court. Paul ran stressed that theres the house, suburban districts that are held by republicans where gun control is not widespread. Right, as both kim and dan alluded to, we have a very proSecond Amendment congress right now, but we have midterm elections coming up and if democrats do manage to take control of congress, you could see the gun lobbies power diluted. We dont know if that has staying power or not. The bottom line here, people who support the Second Amendment tend to vote on that issue. People who support gun control, dont tend to vote on the issue. Paul well, kim, theres a lot of people think that actually in suburban districts gun control in the house could be a very effective weapon, pardon the use of the word, in the fall politically work for democrats and politically in november because a lot of the suburban households, you know, they dont own guns and maybe they now in the wake of the shootings have some more angst about gun ownership, you dont think that could work . I think that it could work, it cuts differently in the house where this is more a danger for republicans. They need those seats, those suburban districts that youre talking about are going to be absolutely crucial to the question of whether or not they can retain the house and theyve got a lot of women voters in those districts. Paul thats right. A lot of nongun own nester the districts who dont necessarily subscribe to a lot of the Second Amendment views in the republican party. Now the question for those House Republicans and the recent omnibus they passed the fix nix bill, can they get out there and talk about that and can they talk about in response to these parkland students and others in the way that reassures those voters. Paul all right, i think the debate will go right through november. When we come back as republicans gear up to defend their congressional majorities in the november midterms, some good news for the gop and some bad in news for the gop and some bad in the latest fox news poll. Pssst. What . I switched to geico and got more. More savings on Car Insurance . Aha. And an awardwinning mobile app. That is more. Oh, theres more. Mobile id cards, emergency roadside service. More technology. I can even add a new driver. Right from her phone geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. Paul four republicans gearing up to defend their congressional majority in the 2018 midterms, some good news and some bad in the latest fox news poll. The gop appears to be closing the gap in the generic congressional ballot, 46 favoring the democratic candidate in their district compared to 41 for the republican. That has narrowed significantly from the fall when 50 said they favored democrats and only 35 said republicans, but the poll also finds a large advantage for democrats when it comes to voter enthusiasm with 46 of democrats saying they are more fired up than usual about voting in november compare today just 28 of republicans. Karl rove, former Senior Adviser to president george w. Bush, also a wall street journal columnist and fox news contributor. So welcome, karl, good to see you. Thank you, sir. Do you think that the politics of gun control politically and their impact on elections has changed fundamentally because of parkland and the student protest in. I dont think its changed fun mentally but i think it has changed somewhat and i do think kim strassels point about the gun control issue in suburban districts with welleducated voters particularly white women, college graduates, this issue is going to play a little bit differently in the republican candidates in those instances need to be able to point to things such as background checks and increasing the efficiency of the federal system to check people who shouldnt be receiving guns. Paul but is that enough, you will have to go further than that because the democrats will say, you passed that but thats not enough, youre already hearing them say we need assaultrifle ban and more aggressive background checks . Well, you know, i think the first part of that isnt going to fly, assault weapons ban, we saw this issue litigated in past elections, but the republicans do need to do something proactively on the issue of background checks and marco rubio and others have, perhaps, provided an opportunity here with their red flag law, thats to say a law that encourages states to adopt laws that allow people to flag somebody who might be a problem. I was taken you put a piece on the wall street journal editorial page from i think the former superintendent of the Boston Police department who talked about how if the parkland shooter had been in boston, they would have been flagged to the by School Authorities and the local Law Enforcement long before it got to a point that they could walk into a school with a weapon and start shooting and that these red flag laws might be a good way for suburban republicans can do, we have to solve the problem by passing law in our state to allow us and detect and help solve the problem before it results in a shooting. Paul okay. Lets look ahead to the midterm election, some of the generic ballots all over the place, fox poll says they are closing, what do you think the democratic theme is going to be, are they going to try to run, say, we will put a check on donald trump and thats about it . No, i dont think they are at that point, they are at the point we hate donald trump, enraged by him and angry and we are going to stop him. They have not yet begun to systemically move away from that position, there was a memo this week from one of the Democratic Campaign committees that was leaked that was advised to candidate saying, you ought to say, we want to look for opportunities to work with the president on problems that face our country, thats the right tone for the democrats to take, but my sense is that in a lot of the races for the house, where the primaries are yet to be held that we are likely to see candidates who are not going to take that advice, their advice will be by god im going to oppose the president each and every way that i can. Paul look, thats worked for them has it not in so far in the special in pennsylvania, republican turnout was down, you know what happened in virginia, they came out of the nooks and crankies like we have never seen before to pace one onto donald trump, why wouldnt the antitrump message drive democratic enthusiasm in the way that helps them . Well, candidates matter, in the virginia governors race which set the tone for that state, the democratic candidate had voted for george w. Bush twice, moderate liberal, moderate moderate candidate who talked about how he was going to work with President Trump. Democrats are not going to nominate a lot of candidates like connor lamb u said he was not running against donald trump and said, im never going to support nancy pelosi. You said the generic ballot is all over the place. Not really. If you take a look at it clear clear politics, 7. 1, here are all the polls since 21st of march, 6 points, 5 points, 7 points, 7 points, if you look at it over time, january 1st, democratic advantage was 12. 9, february 1st, 7. 1, 9. 3 by march first. Something has happened since the beginning of the year and and paul well, everybody would suspect that if the tax bill passed and the economy is doing better, thats what republicans would like to think, is that what you think happened . I think thats the somewhat to the degree of what happened and they ought to keep focused on that. Now, remember, though generic ballot is a rough indicater, in 2006 the democrats had a 10point advantage and gained 31 seats, in 2008 they had a 14point advantage and gained only 21. Paul that was there were fewer seats to be had in that election because some of that good ones had been taken in 2006. Well, good point because thats whats going to happen this year, in my opinion. Political scientists refer to this as surge and decline, what happens is typically when a president comes into office, he brings with him a large number of people of his party who win in marginal seats and in the first med terms get swept out that. Was not the case in 2016, President Trump ran behind most congressional candidates and as a result the republicans actually lost a handful of seats on net in the house, so there was no surge, that will minimize the decline because there are a lot fewer people vulnerable republican who is are firsttime members in marginal seats. Paul karl, we have a long way to go. We will be visiting. Long, long way. Paul when we come back, the schumer stall, dozen trump nominees still await senate confirmation, the republicans finally break the democratic log finally break the democratic log jam, we are telli when it comes to strong bones, are you on the right path . 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If your bones arent getting stronger isnt it time for a new direction . Why wait . Ask your doctor about prolia. Paul one of the more underreported stories of the trump presidency, scores of nominees still awaiting senate confirmation, from ambassadors to judges, democrats are slowwalking the president s pick, sometimes insisting on 30 hours of debate for each one. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said last week that 43 of trumps appointees are still awaiting confirmation and the senate is currently sitting on 78 nominees who have already been vetted and passed out of committee, cant get a floor vote, this includes spokesperson richard who was nominated in september to be President Trumps ambassador to germany, we are back with dan henninger, kim strassel and jason riley, kim, youve been digging at the numbers on this for us, how big a problem is it compared to previous administrations . It blows previous administrations away. If you look at this point in time in the past four presidencies combined, the use of cloture vote which requires 30 hours of debate on a candidate was only used 15 times for executive branch nominees. Paul for the last four presidencies at this period in their term . Right, combined whereas for President Trump that number is almost 50 alone up to this point so far, so democrats are using this procedure which has been very rarely used on people that have been vetted, out of committee, some of them have unanimous, if not bipartisan support out of committee but all it takes is one person to object to moving ahead and then you can subject them, each of them to 30 more hours of debate. And these are important positions, state department, department of homeland security, department of labor, the president s ability to put his people in place is being affected here and i think its why he hasnt made more Management Change or more changes in his administration. Paul whats the strategy . Schumer strategy . To run out the clock, to run out the clock and he believes that his base, that this is what his base wants, this is part of the lefts resistance. Paul run out the clock on senate time and just stall, make it harder for trump to govern . Yes, exactly. That is why i think the republicans are coming up with a new strategy, they want to change the rules for getting people through and theres hope that even democrats will go along with particularly democrats up for reelection in state that is President Trump won. Paul dan, followup on that, a 30hour rule, if the senate wants a debate on any nominee, they can vote cloture and have 30 hours, in the previous administration, when president obama was president , democrats controlled the senate, the republicans agreed to limit that 30hour rule to 8 hours per nominee, that would be the max. Most of the nominees dont have they arent controversial, they have been vetted through committee and thats what republicans want democrats to agree to now the same eight years. But they wont. Paul why not . You dont share jasons optimism . No, i dont. I think something i think Something Else jason suggested which has to do with politics of the Democratic Party now, look, this is a reflection in large part, paul, of the fact that the two parties are very politically polarized between conservatives and liberals and, you know, one name that hasnt come up here is Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell who is not clearly expressed interest in getting behind senator jim lanfords idea to reduce to go only 8 hours, why would that be . I think senator connell would like to have be able to use this sort of process if hes in the minority to block the democrats from running the government as well. Remember, when obama was president , they did a lot of imposition of things of statutes, regulations affecting energy, finance, labor laws, trump campaigns govern comes in and rolls all of that back and puts people in bureaucracy, push ideas that are resisted by the democrats. You come with gridlocks here with appointees to the government. Paul kim, we have three years left on the trump presidency, hes not going to be able to fill out a government even at this kind of pace, theres one proposal thats out there, some people have suggested that is if republicans if democrats are saying, okay, 30 hours, Mitch Mcconnell should say, you want 30 hours, we will give you 30 hours, we will give it to you on friday, we will give it to you on monday and saturday and sunday and the recess you want to take for easter and the memorial day and hold y