Some conservative activists, including Curt Levey of the conservative Committee for Justice and Gary Marx, executive director of the Judicial Crisis Network, have said they hope the surging Tea Party will play a role in the Senate’s consideration of Kagan. “I think it could certainly give the Republican senators even greater backbone to push for a strong debate,” Marx said.
Tea Party coordinators this week said they’re still assessing Kagan’s nomination, and it isn’t yet apparent whether it will become a priority for them. Mark Meckler, a California-based coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, a national group, said any efforts by the group to defeat Kagan’s nomination would have to start at the local level, and he hasn’t yet heard a push to do so. “I think they’ll be realistic,” he said of local coordinators. “Elections have consequences and the president has the right to appoint justices to the Supreme Court. I don’t believe they will have unrealistic expectations. A justice on the left is being replaced by a president on the left.”
