Both Ryan and Uncle have posts going today about this guy. Yesterday I pointed out the reason he was forced out was that he was willing to make too many deals, in order to reach a middle ground. I also feel I should point out that Feldman was big on being a media darling too. I managed to dig up an incident from 1998 that points this out:
Even before the summits began, Sarah Brady, Handgun Control Inc. (HCI), sent a note to Feldman, acknowledging his presence in town and challenging him to meet her in the emergency room of the District of Columbia General Hospital to see, in her words, the suffering caused by Feldman’s efforts on behalf of the gun industry.
Feldman accepted the challenge and arrived at the hospital at the appointed hour, but Brady did not show. There were, however, members of the news media present, waiting to record the showdown. Rather than touring the hospital, Feldman sent Brady a note stating he found it “inappropriate to subject the hospital’s patients to a media event which might cost lives. You, more than most, can appreciate the personal trauma of an injured or ill loved one, and how wrong it would be to be used as a media prop at this vulnerable time. An emergency room is not an appropriate place to debate solutions to our nation’s crime problem.”
The Brady’s played him like a harp, and delivered the gun manufacturers an embarrassing media faux pas. I’m not even a media person, and even I know that the proper response to something like that is to ignore it. I doubt Sarah Brady thought he’d actually be dumb enough to show, but he didn’t disappoint.