Top Republican calls Limbaugh, Gingrich comments ‘terrible’  —  (CNN) — A top Senate Republican is taking aim at recent statements from conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich suggesting Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a “racist.”

Republicans, Let's Play Grown-Up  —  Sotomayor's hearings are an opportunity for serious debate.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  “Let's play grown-up.”  When I was a child, that's what we said when we ran out of things to do like playing potsie or throwing rocks in the vacant lot.

Give Montana Girls a Chance  —  A reader vents: Derb — I've been hoping that someone might be bold enough to rain on the Sotomayor “compelling life story” parade.  The woman grew up in the capital of the world, went to two Ivy League schools, and was blessed by Providence …

Senators Offer Competing Views Of Sotomayor  —  · Judge Sonia Sotomayor is expected to begin making courtesy visits next week to Senate leaders and members of the Judiciary Committee who will conduct hearings on her nomination to the Supreme Court.  —  NPR talked with two committee members …

A Republican Response to Sonia Sotomayor: Criticize, Then Confirm  —  Sonia Sotomayor has a classic American story.  So does Frank Ricci.  —  Ricci is a New Haven firefighter stationed seven blocks from where Sotomayor went to law school (Yale).  Raised in blue-collar Wallingford, Conn. …

Barnes: Sotomayor ‘benefited’ from affirmative action ‘tremendously.’  —  On MSNBC yesterday, Pat Buchanan repeatedly attacked Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor as an “affirmative action candidate,” echoing right-wing claims that she has “been the recipient of preferential treatment for most of her life.”

The Empathy Issue  —  The American legal system is based on a useful falsehood.  It's based on the falsehood that this is a nation of laws, not men; that in rendering decisions, disembodied, objective judges are able to put aside emotion and unruly passion and issue opinions on the basis of pure reason.

The Sotomayor Rules  —  Some were made to be broken.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  President Barack Obama has laid down his ground rules for the debate over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.  The big question now is whether Republicans agree to play by rules that neither Mr. Obama nor his party have themselves followed.

Sotomayor Ruled in “D-Bag Case”  —  Ruled teen's blog post created a created “foreseeable risk of substantial disruption”  —  President Barack Obama's nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy has yet another tie to Connecticut.  She sided against a student in the infamous “douche bag” case …

FIRST THOUGHTS: CONSERVATIVE VS. CONSERVATIVE  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro  —  *** Conservative vs. conservative: After Rush, Newt, and Tancredo called Sonia Sotomayor a racist, a bigot, and an “angry woman,” Charles Krauthammer today fires off this warning …

Bush defends policies, stays out of argument  —  BENTON HARBOR, Michigan (CNN) — Former President George W. Bush on Thursday repeated Dick Cheney's assertion that the administration's enhanced interrogation program, which included controversial techniques such as waterboarding …