Desperately defending his gun vote, Pryor leaves the spin zone, enters the outright-lie zone

CNN: After a barrage of television ads hit Arkansas airwaves criticizing Sen. Mark Pryor, the Democrat is going up with his own spot defending himself as an independent mind beholden to no special interests.

“The mayor of New York City is running ads against me because I oppose President Obama’s gun control legislation,” Pryor says in the spot. “Nothing in the Obama plan would have prevented tragedies like Newtown, Aurora, Tucson, or even Jonesboro. I’m committed to finding real solutions to gun violence while protecting our second amendment rights.”

Pryor, considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2014, has been hit by both sides in recent weeks. The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, funded partly by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is airing a spot targeting Pryor for his “no” vote last month on measure that would have expanded background checks on gun sales.

Meanwhile the Senate Conservative Fund is running ads linking Pryor to Obama, claiming the lawmaker is closely tied to other items on the president’s agenda, including Obamacare.

Fat lot of good selling out to the NRA did you, huh Mark? Newsflash: no matter what you do, Republicans will attack you because you’re a  Democrat. Democracy is oddly competitive that way. When you try to straddle that fence, all you wind up doing is splitting your pants. Being a turncoat dem earns you only enemies, not friends.

But where Pryor really goes off course is at the end of his ad. “No one in Washington tells me what to do,” he says. “I listen to Arkansas.”

Yeah, bullshit you listen to Arkansas. Polling shows that Arkansans want expanded background checks overwhelmingly, 60% - 25%. Public Policy Polling reports, “Mark Pryor’s chances for reelection next year would be enhanced if he supported a background check bill when it comes back up in the Senate. 40% of voters say they would be more likely to cast their ballots for him next year if he reconsidered his position on this issue to just 34% who say they would be less likely to.”

So he’s wrong on both counts; he didn’t listen to Arkansas, he listened to the NRA — who told him what to do.

And in the end it didn’t get him anything but criticism from all sides. Brilliant politicking there, Mark. I don’t think lying to Arkies about what they think is going to work any better.