A young man was escorted out of Hart 216 shortly after the lunch break today, becoming the fifth anti-abortion protester this week to be removed from Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. The man's outburst interrupted Sen. Charles Grassley's questioning of the nominee.

The protester, who managed to stay in the room several seconds longer than the four people removed on Monday, yelled "filibuster Sotomayor." Unlike the earlier protesters, who stuck to straight abortion comments, this man connected the issue to Republicans. "The GOP will lose the pro-life vote! The GOP is done!" he yelled.

Once the man was ushered out and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., requested Grassley resume his questioning, the Iowa Republican quipped: "People always say that I have the ability to turn people on." The audience erupted in laughter.

The morning was absent any similar outburst. In fact, abortion has yet to be mentioned by name with five senators having completed their 30-minute back-and-forth. But during questioning by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., Sotomayor did touch on the issue of whether the Constitution provides a right to privacy, the backbone of Roe v. Wade. When Kohl asked her if Roe is settled law, Sotomayor replied that Planned Parenthood v. Casey "reaffirmed the holding in Roe. That is the Supreme Court's settled interpretation of what the core holding is." She didn't elaborate beyond that.