Remember three years ago, and how all the GOP senators could say was that they wanted an up or down vote on SCOTUS nominees?

Yeah, well that was then and this is now.  Republicans, in an almost humorous twist of irony, are proclaiming Sonia Sotomayor is a racist.  Isn't that right, Rush?

It will be an interesting show.  As Joe at AmericaBlog notes...

...[K]eep your eyes on Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL). He's the ranking Republican on the Judiciary committee and is leading the charge against Sotomayor. In 1986, Sessions own nomination to become a federal judge was defeated (in a Republican-led Senate) because he was accused of being a racist. Let's just say, the leopard hasn't changed its spots. The Jefferson of 1986 is the Jefferson of 2009. He can't help himself. The nomination of a Latina to the Supreme Court could put him over the edge.

It says a lot about the current state of the GOP that Sessions is the leader of the anti-Sotomayor effort. (It's really not too hard to imagine Sessions in the uniform of a Confederate officer.) In some ways, the hearings will show us more about Sessions and the GOP than Sotomayor.

Meanwhile, CBS Radio News White House reporter Mark Knoller is now tweeting the hearings, but not before pimping a new CBS News poll that shows 62% of Americans are undecided on Sotomayor.  No shit?  You mean each and every one of us hasn't thoroughly researched the nominee and come to a reasoned conclusion, Mark?  Wow.  Who knew. 

In any case, I expect Sessions and other Republicans to more or less give Sotomayor a hearty helping of their best character assassination and baseless harassment.  Go ahead, dimwits; chase away whatever remaining Hispanics  consider your party a viable alternative.  Be true to your xenophobic selves.

Oh, yeah, and keep in mind:  Empathy is a dirty, awful liberal thing.  Feeling empathy, like drawing on your personal life experience, is so anti-American.