Conservatives Step Up Attacks on Kagan: 'It's Not Over Till It's Over'

"Politics is a game of numbers, but it's also about momentum," said Dr. Charmaine Yoest, the president and chief executive of Americans United for Life, a pro-life advocacy organization that opposes Kagan. "You never know what's going to happen. It isn't over until it's over."

Yoest and her 20-plus staff began working around the clock to stop Kagan's nomination even before President Barack Obama nominated her to succeed the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, assuming Kagan would be his choice. After her nomination, AUL's legal team produced a background paper on Kagan's record every day until the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on Kagan, where Yoest testified against the nomination.

On Monday, AUL worked with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to send a letter to all 100 senators calling Kagan's past conduct on abortion issues "unethical and disgraceful."

"We have a moral imperative to make sure people know the facts before the vote is final," Yoest said.

Beyond the abortion issue, Kagan has generated conservative opposition from pro-military organizations, pro-business lobbyists, Tea Party groups and the National Rifle Association.

In an urgent action alert, the NRA called on members Friday afternoon to lobby their senators to filibuster Kagan, based on what the group says is Kagan's past opposition to Second Amendment rights. "The NRA also pointed to Sonia Sotomayor as a reason to oppose President Obama's second nominee, accusing Sotomayor of "deliberately misleading the American people" about her beliefs about the Second Amendment during her own nomination hearings in 2009.

And instead of simply relying on members to call their senators, a Tea Party group in South Carolina put the heat directly on Sen. Lindsay Graham, the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee last year to support Sonia Sotomayor.

"Senator Graham, if you vote 'yes,' the voters will not forget it," Benjamin Smith of Move America Forward warned Graham at a rally last week, calling Kagan "un-American."

Before the this latest conservative blitz, 14 Republican senators had already announced they'll oppose Kagan, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Orrin Hatch of Utah.

But those numbers will surely grow. Sotomayor saw 31 Republicans oppose her nomination, with just nine GOP members (including Maine's two senators) supporting her.

A window into Republican opposition to Kagan may come from a recent Gallup poll, which shows that the partisan divide in the Senate over Kagan reflecting a similar partisan divide in the country. Gallup found that a majority of self-identified Democrats, 68 percent, favor Kagan's confirmation, while 21 percent of Republicans do.

Overall, Gallup found Kagan's approval rating among the public at 44 percent, the lowest of any potential Supreme Court justice who went on to be confirmed. Harriet Miers had a 42 percent approval rating before President George W. Bush pulled her nomination. Chief Justice John Roberts had the highest rating of any recent justice -- 60 percent -- while the Senate considered him for the court.

After the full Senate votes for her nomination, some time before the chamber's August break, Kagan will be sworn into the court, giving her about two months to hire a staff and prepare for the court's opening session in October.

Yoest said that AUL is just getting started in its work against Kagan and will eventually score a vote for Kagan by any senator "as a vote against life."

"We intend to hold every single senator who votes for her responsible for that vote," Yoest said. "For the woman who appears to have been single-handedly responsible for extending the reign of partial birth abortion for a full decade in this country, this is not a vote any senator can take a pass on."