• Per the White House, Sonia Sotomayor will meet today with Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Russell Feingold, D-Wis., John Kerry, D-Mass., Carl Levin, D-Mich., Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Jim Webb, D-Va.

• "After consulting closely with the White House, Senate Democrats announced Tuesday that hearings on" Sotomayor's nomination "would begin on July 13, infuriating Republicans who said that they had been blind-sided and that the timetable would recklessly short-circuit the review process," the New York Times reports.

• Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., "may have squandered whatever goodwill he'd developed with" new ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., "with the way he went about announcing the start date for Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing," CQ reports.

• "Republicans were blindsided by Leahy's announcement but cognizant that they have few options short of moving to block votes on Sotomayor or hold up Senate business -- both politically unpalatable choices -- to delay the timetable," the AP reports. "Instead, they complained about the schedule and warned they would press their argument."

• "The GOP is still debating how to make" the "case against a nominee who, barring a disqualifying revelation, is expected to emerge from her Senate review as the newest justice," NPR reports. "But consensus is emerging over how to use Sotomayor's confirmation process -- and its three or four days of televised hearings -- as a jumping-off point to appeal to the moderate and independent voters whom the party has been rapidly shedding."

• "A legal counsel for a top Senate Democrat has been sending around" an e-mail that "seems to be the source for" the claim by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., "that Republicans plan to shut down Judiciary Committee business in protest of the accelerated Sotomayor timetable," Politico reports.

• "Vice President Joe Biden and representatives from eight national law enforcement groups gathered at the White House" Tuesday "in praise of" Sotomayor's "credentials on crime," NationalJournal.com reports.

• The nominee's brother, Juan Sotomayor, "says that 'angry is just the beginning' of how he feels about criticism levied against" his sister, ABC News reports.

• The New York Times reports on a case in which Sotomayor joined an opinion that kept a man "in a New York prison for a rape and murder he did not commit."

Top Commentary

• "Sotomayor's views on race and ethnicity are certainly deplorable," Jeff Jacoby says, but "she did not deserve to be smeared as a racist."

• "The rap on... Sotomayor's ruling in the New Haven firefighters case is that she supposedly looked at the race of the parties and chose sides," Ruth Marcus writes, but it "is a lot more complicated than the cries of 'quota queen' acknowledge."

• "Rush Limbaugh is being too easy on" Sotomayor, the Washington Times writes. "Pro-life groups should not follow the famed radio host in assuming the Supreme Court nominee will have empathy for their legal or moral positions."

• "For all her faults, it's unlikely that" Sotomayor "will be a pushover for any wartime president. Constitutionalists and civil libertarians should take comfort in the fact that it could have been worse," Gene Healy maintains.