Why the NRA suddenly cares so much about Supreme Court nomination battles.

[Swede]

But never mind, the NRA took aim at Sotomayor with both barrels and suffered some embarrassment when its effort to scare senators failed to have much impact. This wobble over Sotomayor may explain why, when Elena Kagan was up for Supreme Court confirmation this year, the NRA evinced some initial confusion over tactics for the confirmation hearings themselves, and even prevented its board members from testifying against her. After all, the evidence that Kagan is hostile to gun rights was even flimsier than their case against Sotomayor.

Once the hearings started, however, the NRA got it together enough to decide that Kagan presented a serious threat to gun rights. Within 24 hours of her Senate testimony, there came the NRA letter to the Senate. Then the print and Web ads, leading to a national anti-Kagan ad that aired on Fox News and culminated in an urgent action alert telling members to call their senators and tell them to "OPPOSE and filibuster the Kagan nomination!" Finally, the NRA pledged to count the vote on Kagan's confirmation vote as a "key vote" in upcoming congressional scorecards. As John Nichols explains, this all-powerful marker for those who displease the NRA is nothing to sneeze at:

http://www.slate.com/id/2265980/

[msongs]

1. any nominee from a black president will upset the neo klan crowd nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. The NRA and gun owners in general are not neo-klan

[aikoaiko]

5. I'm glad to see you didn't miss this opporunity to race bait.

:sarcasm:

[Gecko6400]

6. Absolute nonsense!

[onehandle]

9. Otherwise known as Republicans. nt

[xchrom]

2. Lol - I can see this thread getting interesting. Nt

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Popcorn for lunch? - mmmmm.

:popcorn: Why not?

[onehandle]

7. To satisfy their overwhelmingly Republican owners? nt

[Paladin]

8. It's The Latest NRA Hyper-Paranoia Meme.

Those massive legal victories that have been delivered to the gun rights crowd by Tony Scalia and his merry bunch of results-driven judicial activists are hanging by a thread, according to the NRA---Obama's putting libruls on the Court and all the nation's guns are going bye-bye. They're just not happy unless they're scared shitless and miserble.....

[HawkerHurricane]

10. The National Republican Association opposes the nominees

of a Democratic President? Not news.

No, really. I've seen the local NRA oppose a pro-hunter Democrat in favor of a Republican who tried to pass a gun control law on the city council. Why? Because "everyone knows" Democrats are anti-gun and Republicans are pro-gun. Except... this particular Democrat wasn't anti-gun, and this particular Republican wasn't pro-gun. But that didn't matter, the "everyone knows" part did.

I call them the National Republican Association, because that's what they are.

[Abq_Sarah]

12. Which explains why they endorsed Bill Richardson

And why the NRA endorsed more Democrats than repugs in the 2010 state house primaries.

[HawkerHurricane]

13. Did they? I'm amazed.

Maybe there's hope for the organization after all.

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. They just endorsed an ex-cop congressional candidate (R) in my area

who was told by his former supervisor (the chief of police) that he didn't think the officer should be trusted with a gun.

How fucked up is that? But then again, he's a (R)