Apparently, the House Republican drive to issue a contempt citation to Eric Holder will end up attracting Democratic support – thanks to the National Rifle Association.

Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, who represents the most Republican-leaning district of any House Democrat, announced on Tuesday that he’s “sadly” concluded that the citation is necessary, and Rep. Steny Hoyer – the Democrats’ top vote-counter in the chamber – acknowledged that other members of the caucus are considering doing the same.

Matheson didn’t cite the NRA in his announcement, but Hoyer did, and for good reason. The rabidly pro-gun/anti-Obama group has decided to use the Holder contempt vote as part of its rating formula for House members. For Democrats like Matheson, whose sprawling, rural district is filled with voters who take their guns seriously, being on the wrong side of the NRA in an election year is a serious risk. So it seems likely that political survival instincts will prompt a few others to join with Matheson.

The question is why the NRA has decided to emphasize the Holder vote. The group’s official explanation, believe it or not, involves conspiracy theory – the idea that the Fast and Furious gun-walking program that led to the death of a border patrol agent in 2010 was actually “a political attack on the 2nd Amendment and that the Justice Department facilitated a crime to further their gun control political agenda.”

That was NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre’s assertion, and it’s been echoed by several Republicans in Congress, including Darrell Issa, the Oversight Committee chairman who has been leading the contempt push. On national television on Sunday, Issa said:

“We have emails from people involved in this who are talking about using what they’re finding here to support the — basically — assault weapons ban or greater reporting. So, chicken or egg? We don’t know which came first, we probably never will.”