Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings

Begin today. Jill has a good write-up on some of the Republican talking points. I'm going to pay attention to differential treatment: Whether her treatment in these hearings passes the sex-reversal rule of Echidne. Just think of her as Simon Sotomayor and translate whatever is being said into those terms. If what you get sounds likely then she has not been treated differently because of her gender, always assuming that the issue discussed has not already been transmogrified by such concerns.

As a possible example of the latter, some conservatives have argued (truthfully or not) that Sotomayor lacks certain social skills. Whether such skills are ample among the eight male Justices of the Supreme Court isn't of interest to anyone, perhaps because only women are supposed to be nicey-nicey.