Debuting during the Super Bowl, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg teamed up with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to push a new organization called "Mayors Against Illegal Guns." They describe themselves as "a bipartisan coalition of more than 600 mayors from across the country, to help crack down on illegal guns."

Watch the ad:

The coalition is pushing a variety of legislative action, including pushing for the defeat of concealed carry reciprocity, the Boren Amendment and the Tiahrt Amendment. Additionally, the number one issue atop their policy agenda is the Fix Gun Checks Act.

David Kopel said scathingly of the Fix Gun Checks Act, under consideration last year as S.436:

S. 436 violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due of law, the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law, and the Tenth Amendment's reservation of state authority over purely intrastate activities. S. 436 further violates the Tenth Amendment by imposing on the vast majority of states an extremely repressive system of restrictions on law-abiding gun owners which those states have already rejected.

Whatever good intentions might lie behind S. 436, the actual bill as drafted is grotesquely overbroad, and a Pandora's Box of the dangerous consequences that are the inevitable result of making it a felony for law-abiding Americans to possess and use firearms.

As always, having a noble-sounding name and good intentions don't make for good outcomes. It's always important to check out what someone has to say - especially someone as unfriendly to liberty as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

After a disastrous defeat in Nevada and a strange, vindictive speech fixated on his rival, Newt Gingrich appeared on Meet the Press to lay out his strategy to take him further in the GOP nomination fight and, potentially, to the nomination.

"Our goal is to get to Super Tuesday where we are in much more favorable territory... By the time Texas is over, we will be very, very competitive in delegate count,” he predicted.

Gingrich's focus on Southern states stems from his success in South Carolina where he powered to victory thanks to the support of voters looking for a more conservative alternative to Romney.

Ten states hold primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday and a total of 437 total delegates are up for grabs. They are Alaska (27), Georgia (76), Idaho (32), Massachusetts (41), North Dakota (28), Ohio (66), Oklahoma (43), Tennessee (58), Vermont (17), and Virginia (49).

Gingrich is right about one thing: very few states have actually voted so far, and very few delegates have actually been apportioned. If Newt has a long-game strategy, the long game is still very much in play.

Maine is currently in the midst of a multiple-day voting process, Minnesota and Colorado vote on February 7th, and Michigan and Arizona vote on February 28th. There's still a long way to go between now and the GOP convention.

This week will bring the Conservative Political Action Conference to Washington, D.C., one of the largest gatherings of conservative activists nationwide. CPAC has long been the target of liberal ire, but this year, the AFL-CIO is planning a sort of "Occupy" protest. As LaborUnionReport documents:

[U]nion bosses and their adopted #OccupyDC progeny appear to be planning to disrupt and lay siege to the conservative conference... According to the AFL-CIO’s Washington DC Metro Council website, “Actions are currently being planned for noontime andafter work on Friday, February 10.”

Townhall will be there as a cosponsor of the event, and we'll absolutely bring any breaking news about union goons attempting to disrupt the proceedings straight to you. Seems strange that after their disastrous attempt to disrupt the Americans For Prosperity Summit that the union goons would try again, but I suppose the Left have always been slow on the uptake.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - As of this writing, Mitt Romney is leading the Nevada caucuses by a substantial margin, and Newt Gingrich looks like he'll hold second place.  For the dynamics of the Silver State results, review this post.  Here's Romney taking it to President Obama at his raucous Nevada victory rally:
 

 

Tonight's speech featured a few fresh and biting lines: (1) "Well Mr. President, Nevada has had enough of your kind of help." (2) "This president began his presidency by apologizing for America.  He should now be apologizing to America."  The address was one of the more aggressive, energetic efforts we've seen from Romney to date, and his team hopes to keep the enthusiasm rolling throughout the remaining February caucuses and primaries. 

In lieu of an election night party, Newt Gingrich opted for a lengthy press conference, at which he was peppered with process questions about his horserace with Romney.  He came off as whiny and aggrieved, at one point denying that Romney was "in his head."  During roughly 30 minutes of questioning, Gingrich fielded only one policy question (which came from yours truly, regarding "Catholic" Nancy Pelosi's professed support for President Obama's egregious First Amendment violation on religious liberty and Obamacare).  As expected, Newt refused to drop out and vowed to march on to the convention, predicting that he'd be "at parity" with Romney by the end of the Texas primary in early April.  This is all part of Team Newt's new delegate-centered strategy moving forward.  He also stated that he plans to adopt a different approach in handling Romney at their next debate, which is slated for February 22nd in Arizona.  He said that he lost the Florida debates because he was caught off guard and rendered speechless by Romney's "fundamental dishonesty."  He did allow that in a general election between Obama and Romney, there would be "no choice" in the matter, due to Obama's disastrous record.

Neither Rick Santorum nor Ron Paul were in Nevada tonight.  Onward, to Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri...

UPDATE - Video of Newt's opening statement, via Breitbart:
 

Our own Kevin Glass tweets that Charles Krauthammer said on Fox that Newt's response to my question during the Q&A session was the high point of an otherwise low evening for the former Speaker.

CNN's "entrance polls" (slightly different than exit polls because they ask whom voters plan to support as they enter polling places, not whom they've just voted for as they leave) indicate that Mitt Romney is poised to clean up in today's Nevada caucuses.  The only remaining dramas are whether Romney will win a majority, and whether Newt Gingrich may slip to third place behind Ron Paul.  On the first question, the former Massachusetts governor appears poised to take an outright majority.  He won 57 percent of women and 53 percent of men, so unless the entrance polling data is wildly askew, that should be enough to push Romney into overall majority territory.  A few more interesting tidbits:
 

(1) Romney won every educational background demo, and every age cohort except 17-29 year-olds, who went for Paul by a slim margin.

(2) Romney won all voters making more than $30K per year.  He, Gingrich, and Paul roughly split lower income Nevadans, with Paul barely edging out his competitors.

(3) The former Bay State governor carried 61 percent of registered Republicans, with 20 percent for Gingrich.  Ron Paul won independents 48-31 over Romney.

(4) Romney won a majority of "very conservative" voters at 51 percent, more than doubling Gingrich's 24 percent in this category.  He also wins a bare majority among those who describe themselves as Tea Party supporters -- ie, Sharron Angle's base.  (Angle, incidentally, is a Santorum supporter.  The former Senator is expected to come in fourth tonight).

(5) Romney won a plurality of Protestants, a majority of Catholics, and -- as anticipated -- more than 90 percent of Mormons, who comprised over 1/4 of the GOP electorate here.

(6) Of those Nevadans who said a candidate's ability to defeat Obama, personal character, or previous experience were the most important factor in their vote, Romney won majorities of all three groups.  If voters were looking for the "true conservative," they picked Ron Paul 45-31 over Gingrich.  Newt won one percent of Nevada Republicans seeking a candidate with strong character.

The moral of this story is that tonight will be rather anti-climactic: Romney will win big.  His supporters will say this outcome is a big deal because Nevada is a key swing state.  Mitt opponents will downplay the results, arguing that Romney had a major built-in advantage, having won the state in 2008 and by enjoying near-unanimous support among LDS voters.  The political reality will lie somewhere in between.  Romney's win won't be quite as important as his backers will claim, but in terms of momentum, it's very big.  Parting thought: Newt won't drop out tonight, but might he finish behind Ron Paul?  Paul won 23 percent of men and 14 percent of women here.  Gingrich's numbers were 18 and 21, respectively.  How will those numbers shake out in the final tally?  Failing to achieve a top-two finish here would be a blow to Team Newt, which has suffered more than its share of setbacks here in the Silver State.

UPDATE - Millionaire Sheldon Adelson -- whose magnificent hotel I'm staying at here in Las Vegas -- has reportedly informed Mitt Romney that he will bankroll his campaign to the tune of millions, should he capture the nomination.  Until that time, however, Adelson remains a Gingrich supporter, and says he will continue to fund the former Speaker's effort to win the GOP nod.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - A quick, but important, follow-up to Kevin's post about tonight's press conference.  The Gingrich campaign has confirmed to Townhall that Newt will deliver remarks here at the Venetian Hotel at approximately 8:00 pm PT, followed by a Q & A session with the media.  Because Mitt Romney is widely expected to score a resounding win in the Silver State, Team Newt's somewhat hastily-scheduled press conference has generated some online speculation that Newt may be preparing to drop out of the race.  Those rumors are not credible.  The campaign just blasted out an email to reporters detailing the former Speaker's upcoming travel schedule, which includes stops in Colorado and Minnesota -- states that will vote this coming Tuesday.  Beyond that, Gingrich's itinerary includes multiple rallies in Ohio. Buckeye State voters don't go to the polls until Super Tuesday (March 6th), so it doesn't appear that Newt will be throwing in the towel any time soon.  I've reached out to Gingrich's national spokesman for a direct confirmation that Newt is staying in, but have not yet received a response.  The overwhelming evidence suggests that there won't be any game-changing announcement later tonight, but this cycle hasn't exactly been predictable.  Stay tuned...

UPDATE - This nugget from CNN further suggests that Newt is staying put:
 

The Newt Gingrich campaign held a meeting with approximately 60 donors Friday in Las Vegas, including casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a source with knowledge of the session told CNN. Gingrich, who attended the meeting, had a brief discussion with Adelson at the session, the source said.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - As we await the finalized presidential caucus results here in the Silver State, I thought I'd share a quick clip of my recent appearance on the Fox Business Network's Willis Report, in which the panel discusses the Florida primary outcome, Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney, and the House Republicans' vote to extend the federal pay freeze -- which flies in the face of President Obama's plan to boost bureaucrats' compensation:
 

As a bonus Townhall TV presentation, here's my lovely and talented colleague Elisabeth Meinecke making her television debut, also with Gerri Willis:
 

On Saturday, D.C. police are finally getting around to clearing out the rat-infested trash heap that is sometimes referred to as "Occupy D.C." Many tents remained in defiance of a ban on camping and had recently defaced a statue of General McPherson in the middle of McPherson Square. Police, however, were very careful in their operation.

The police used barricades to cordon off sections of McPherson Square, a park under federal jurisdiction near the White House, and checked tents for mattresses and sleeping bags and sifted through piles of garbage and other belongings. Some wore yellow and white biohazard suits to guard against diseases identified at the site in recent weeks. Officials also have raised concerns about a rat infestation.

Police by mid-day had arrested four people who refused to move from beneath a statute and two others who crossed a police line.

The National Park Service, which has allowed the protesters to remain in the park for months, has said it will give protesters notice if police decide to clear the park. Police on Saturday were careful to say they were not evicting anyone or closing the park, but were instead stepping up enforcement of an existing ban on camping.

Occupy D.C. has been serving as one of the remaining permanent encampments of the Occupy movement nationwide, as the National Park Service and the D.C. police force had tolerated their existence for months. After reports of rat infestations, Occupy D.C. seemed to reach a tipping point against them from authorities, who have been getting serious about cleaning up the encampment.

The Washington Examiner's offices are right on the square of Occupy D.C. and were able to capture video of riot police thinning the herds of protesters.