NYT editorial: Lock and Load a Round of Ingratitude

How much pandering does a politician have to do to win the gun lobby’s political blessing? Apparently there is never enough.

Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, must have felt politically secure a year ago when he delivered a $61 million desert shooting range to his home state, Nevada, with earmarked federal money. “A true champion of the Second Amendment back in Washington, D.C.,” enthused Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. Mr. Reid, brandishing his boyhood .22 rifle, chimed in, “This weapon is my friend.”

Now the N.R.A. has announced its non-endorsement of the senator’s re-election bid, citing as the reason his support of the confirmation of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court — suspicious newcomers, in the gun lobby’s cramped view.

(The rest is here.)