Here’s Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), quoted yesterday by The Hill:

“I’m very disappointed. [NRA seems] to be going beyond their Second Amendment issues, particularly when I think the judge’s positions on those issues are still fairly open,” Warner said. “I trust in her judgment and temperament. I think the NRA at some point has gone beyond its mission, and are perhaps allowing themselves to get hijacked by those who are in the extreme.”

Warner joins Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) as an A-rated lawmaker in the eyes of the NRA who has recently announced his support for Sotomayor.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), for the record, says he has no clue how he’ll vote on the nominee, The Hill notes.

Take Sen. Tim Johnson. The South Dakotan was the lone Democrat on the banking panel to vote against the bill.

The reason? Well, officially, Johnson said the bill “goes too far in prohibiting lenders from adjusting prices to account for increased risk.” (Among other things, the bill requires companies to give 45 days notice when raising interest rates and prohibits issuers from applying rate increases to existing balances — the types of things that would prevent rates from jumping 20 or 30 percent overnight because of a single late payment.)

Yet South Dakota also happens to be a hub for some of the largest credit card operations in the country, including Citibank. Johnson is clearly protecting the regional industry here, and his opposition to the bill forecasts a tough fight ahead for reform supporters. Indeed, Delaware — another center of credit card activity — is home to Sen. Tom Carper, another Democrat with a history of protecting the industry.

As the stalled cramdown bill has shown, the finance industry has plenty of influence even when the issues aren’t regional. With two Senate Democrats already defending the industry over consumers, the race to 60 is sure to be close.

That’s significant because Democrats currently command just a one-seat advantage on the panel (11-10), and two of those Dems — Tim Johnson (S.D.) and Tom Carper (Del.) — would likely join Republicans in protecting the banks against legislation restricting, among other things, abusive fees, rate hikes and marketing practices for credit cards. (The reason is simple: A bank that’s collecting fewer late fees is a bank that’s making less money than it was the year before.) Both Delaware and South Dakota are home to major credit card operations.

It’s unclear how the panel’s party ratio will break down next year. (The race in Minnesota is still undecided). But Plunkett said the Dems could pick up two or three additional seats, which would be plenty to overcome the presumed opposition of Johnson and Carper. That spells good news for Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who has a credit card reform bill written and ready to reintroduce next year. Indeed, consumer advocates are cautiously optimistic that 2009 will be the year that bill is enacted.

“It’s gonna be close,” Plunkett said.