The coming GOP attack on Kagan and guns

Greg Sargent is right about this -- Republicans are going to look closely at any decisions or suggestions Elena Kagan made about gun rights during her work in Bill Clinton's administration. (You can do your own sift through her records here, as of today.) This is a fairly new development in SCOTUS fights, but an important one. It wasn't until the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor last year that the NRA ever took a stand on high court nominees, telling senators it would count votes for her nomination against them on their NRA records. After the vote, Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice -- which did a lot of work rounding up pro-2nd Amendment groups in this cause, interpreted it this way.

The Republican leadership reminded them that if they don't care about judges, they should. For 130 years, the NRA could be effective by focusing on legislation, but now, after last year's Supreme Court decision in Heller, this issue is in the courts — pretty much like abortion was after Roe v. Wade.

So definitely expect to hear this again. Republicans feel they they've opened up a new front, and they have the high ground.