The NYT solicits questions to ask Judge Sotomayor from such notable legal authorities as Michael Chertoff, Alberto Gonzales, and Ann Althouse. We provide a translation for non-lawyers.

I wonder if there is a lot of trust among people in Boccieri’s district for private insurance companies? Because that’s what they’re going to be stuck with without a public plan. And it looks like Boccierri will vote for something that is under-funded and won’t really do anything to help middle class people.

Boccieri Ohio office: (330) 754-0534. DC office: (202) 225-3876.

She’s nuttier than her old man, this one.

If Courtney cares more about his constituents than he does his donors like Aetna and Wellpoint,  why won’t he answer a simple question?  Because the Blue Dogs don’t have any problem saying where they will draw the line in screwing over the public, and as long as Courtney stays silent, they control the conversation.

It sets Courtney up to take a bad vote — just like he did on ACES and the supplemental — just to “get something passed.”

DC office: Norwich office:  (202) 225-2076 (860) 886-0139, Enfield office:  (860) 741-6011.  Chief of Staff:  Jason Gross.  Legislative Director:  Neil McKiernan.  

Siobhan Gorman reports that the big secret Panetta revealed to Congress is an assassination squad. But there’s got to be more to it than that.

Mike Stark spoke to Steve Cohen about taking the Pledge. Cohen said he believed in all the principles, but that you never knew what was coming down the road. In other words, we should trust him.

The confirmation hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor begin at 10 am ET today in Senate Judiciary. I’ll be liveblogging as I can throughout the week.

AFJ’s Nan Aron has a preview of what we can expect from today’s Sotomayor confirmation hearing. In sum, the GOP will use the hearings as a venue to talk guns, abortion and to replay the politically and racially divisive strategery of the Jessie Helms “hands”

Today, Judge Sonia Sotomayor begins the hearing portion of her confirmation process. So far, there has been the expected (sadly) partisan yammering on her nomination. Then, on Friday, there suddenly emerged something that might seem to take hold as the focus of the obligatory partisan sniping.

The confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor begin this morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee at 10 am ET.

I’ll be doing live coverage as much as possible throughout the hearing process. The first day is almost always Senator opening statements and an introductory statement from home state Senators. The published schedule from Judiciary for today bears that out as well. Then the SCOTUS candidate gets to make an opening statement that sets the tone for the candidate’s prep work as well as how questions will be answered — or not — and what demeanor we can expect through the bulk of the hearings.

• Will they have the guts to ask if she’s a racist?
• Lil’ Kim has cancer.
• Did Cheney break the law?
• Who cares!
• What Dick was hiding.
• Sarah knows best.
• Maybe this is why all the 3rd party talk?
• 94% of scientists are non-Republicans.