The NRA is opposing Kagan and issuing the one threat that could potentially draw Dems votes away from her: they're going to count the vote in their scorecard. However, they issued the same threat over the Sotomayor nomination, and no Dems defected in that vote, so Kagan and the White House are unlikely to be white-knuckling this one.
They have, predictably, lost Hatch who dresses his obstruction up in typically hyperbolic terms.
Hatch said he is not convinced that Kagan wouldn’t become an “activist” justice and that she fails to meet the standard to which he’s held previous nominees.
“Over nearly 25 years, [Solicitor] General Kagan has endorsed, and praised those who endorse, an activist judicial philosophy,” Hatch said in a statement. “I was surprised when she encouraged us at the hearing simply to discard or ignore certain parts of her record. I am unable to do that. I also cannot ignore disturbing situations in which it appears that her personal or political views drove her legal views.”
Hatch also voted against Sotomayor, the first time he has voted against a Supreme Court nominee, suggesting that Hatch has given up on principle and is pandering to the far-right base. Not a bad bet, considering he's up for re-election in two years, and just watched his colleague Bob Bennett get ousted by the extremists in the Utah GOP.
In other Kagan confirmation hearing news, don't miss Jason Linkins' hilarious post on one of the Republican side's witnesses, "William J. Olson, Esq. of William J. Olson, P.C. -- a law firm that is heavily involved in all sorts of conservative cause celebres, from the standard-issue, to the totally bonkers." It's the bonkers stuff ("the Search for Fort Knox Gold!" and "Jesus Will Cure Your Cancer With Food Supplements!") that show the true depths to which the GOP has sunk.
Speaking of sinking, here's Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III congratulating Lily Ledbetter.
SESSIONS: Ms. Ledbetter, good to see you. I went past that Goodyear plant a lot of times, according to my wife, from Gadsden, who grew up in Gadsden. And congratulations on moving the Congress to alter the law in a way that, I think, will not allow that kind of thing to happen again.
Sessions was one of only 23 votes against the Lilly Ledbetter anti-wage discrimination law.