This morning, in the opening session of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, took aim at President Obama for his opposition to the 2005 appellate court nomination of Janice Rogers Brown, an African American judge now sitting on the D.C. Circuit. Hatch said Brown has a "compelling life story" much like Sotomayor's.

Hatch said that when Obama opposed Brown, he "argued that the test of a qualified judicial nominee is whether she can set aside her personal views and, as he put it, 'decide each case on the facts and the merits alone." Hatch added that Obama said then "that while a nominee's race, gender and life story are important, they cannot distract from the fundamental focus on the kind of judge she will be."

Hatch continued: "But today, President Obama says that personal empathy is an essential ingredient in judicial decisions. Today, we are urged to ignore Judge Sotomayor's speeches altogether and focus only on her judicial decisions. I do not believe that we should do that."

Hatch's comments, along with opening remarks by Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., which also focused a good deal on Obama's standard for selecting judges, suggest Republicans' real target in the hearings is the president. In fact, Graham said that the hearings are "mostly about conservative and liberal politics."

"Unless you have a complete meltdown, you will be confirmed," Graham quipped to Sotomayor.