Sen. Joe Manchin: 'I'm so proud of the NRA'

Well, so much for that. Joe Manchin got some attention earlier this week after the pro-NRA senator suggested that maybe we ought to take another look at our gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders. Now, however, it look like he's going to revise and extend those remarks, as the hep cats say these days.

'These are my friends,' Manchin, who previously served as governor, said of the NRA. 'They're good people. They're hurting. They're in pain the same way as every American about what happened to these twenty little children. And I'm not going to let anybody be villainized.'

'I'm so proud of the NRA,' Manchin said later. 'I'm so pleased they agreed to be part of this.'

Yeah, they're real princes among men. They're just like the AAA of guns, if the AAA went around demanding that everyone be able to mount chainsaws, flamethrowers and radial saw blades on the front of their cars and tool around the sidewalks at top speed because that's what God and the founders intended, and if the rest of us don't like that well then maybe we should just dress our kids up in more goddamn padding before sending them out to play.

Well, fine, so we know we're not going to get any of our A-rated NRA politicians to badmouth the biggest anti-gun-safety lobby in the land. So if talk about how to better keep guns away from crazy people is too much for us, what is on the table, Sen. Manchin?

Manchin spent more of the interview putting the focus on violent video games and mental health issues.

'Look at Grand Theft Auto, put out by Rockstar Games in New York City and see what it promotes,' Manchin said, adding later: 'Shouldn't that be looked into and maybe be banned?'

Oh for Christ's sake.

Prediction: We're going to limit the number of rounds people can shoot off in video games long before we think about limiting the number of rounds they can fire in real life. Not joking on that one.