Bush DOJ does it again and not in a good way

As noted by Instapundit, Bush DOJ betrays gun rights. Instapundit recounts a report from David Hardy Of Arms and the Law that the Bush DOJ has just filed an amicus brief in the Heller case that should hardly give any gun owner cause for joy or support for the GOP. While the amicus brief holds the Second Amendment to be an individual right, it argues for such a low level of scrutiny -including the possibility of complete bans being acceptable -- as to make the right meaningless.

As Mr. Hardy writes:

the GOP operated on two principles: screw your friends and appease your enemies. Yup.

It seems the GOP still operates on the same, except change "appease your enemies" to "cravenly lick their enemies' boots and ask, "please sir may I have another?""

There was no requirement for the DOJ to submit an amicus brief, and could have quite simply not filed one and not further riled up an active portion of the Republican base in this, an election year. Its not like gun owners are thrilled with Bush to begin with as while he is certainly the lesser of the two evils presented, he's done very little to unwind the damages caused by the Clinton years.

There was certainly no reason for the DOJ to file a brief that holds that a complete ban on firearms could be construed as reasonable and not an infringement of a the individual right, Indeed, if one can completely ban the exercise of a right, it is not much of a right than is it?

Will the Federal Republicans ever learn that betraying their base and constantly trying to out-Democrat the Democrats (massive spending, massively increasing the size of government, corruption and earmarks galore) is no way to remain in power? The Dems still do all of that much better, and the Republicans will only lose votes by continuing to act like this.