Updated at 4:33 p.m. on July 28.

Wisconsin's two Democratic senators denounced the politicization of Supreme Court nominations during the Senate Judiciary Committee's executive business meeting on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation vote today.

"I have no reservations about my support for Judge Sotomayor, but I share concerns expressed by many Americans and legal commentators about our committee's ability to have substantive and candid conversations about our nominees," Herb Kohl said in Hart 216.

He said it has become a "familiar pattern" -- regardless of who is in the White House -- for president's nominees to dodge questions on past Supreme Court decisions and how they might handle "close calls" if they're confirmed. "It's understandable that nominees don't want to risk their confirmation that might provoke potential opponents, but it is reasonable for us to ask them to speak more openly," Kohl said.

Russell Feingold said that the hearings "have become little more than theater" and bemoaned "a nominations process that I think fails to educate the Senate or the public about the views of potential Justices on the Supreme Court."

Kohl proposed a bipartisan committee made up of judiciary panel members, American Bar Association members, other legal experts and members of the media who have covered SCOTUS nominations to evaluate what type of issues and cases nominees should be expected to answer in the confirmation process.