It is at least a turning point for Democrats. Says TIME White House correspondent Karen Tumulty: "The Gore tiebreaker now hands the Republicans a huge defeat and loads the Democrats with a lot of ammunition going into the election season." Adds TIME congressional correspondent John Dickerson: "Increasingly, these are images that are too strong to be on the wrong side of," he says. Cleland -- and the six Republicans who crossed the aisle to make Gore's tiebreaker necessary -- obviously thought so. The wider juvenile-crime bill, which passed Thursday evening by a 73-25 vote, now heads to the House, where the shootout has already begun. Republicans initially wanted to delay debate until June and test the public's attention span; Democrats are fighting to get it to the front of the line. "Clearly, we need to tighten current laws to make it more difficult for kids to get guns," House Speaker Dennis Hastert said. "We will take a look at the measure passed by the Senate to make sure that it is a reasonable and commonsense approach." Here we go again.
Conyers: The Shots Heard 'Round Capitol Hill
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At eight o'clock Thursday morning, a high school kid put a gun to Max Cleland's head. The Georgia senator had been one of only two Democrats to vote against the background-check amendment in its earlier form (when it went down in the Senate by a 51-47 vote). But after T. J. Solomon slunk into Heritage High School with a pair of guns blazing, the Boy Scouts' man on the Hill suddenly decided that guns, when they're too easy to get, do kill people after all. "For that to occur in my own state, in my own backyard, reinforced and steeled my commitment," he said. (Cleland insisted Thursday that he had pretty much decided to switch his vote a day earlier.) "It pushed me over the edge." Cleland voted aye. Gore broke the tie. And after that rare 51-50 vote, it seemed that maybe the veep's declaration that "this is a turning point for our country" wasn't just wishful campaigning.