Sotomayor vs. SVU & CSI

Right now on USA, there is a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon. On Spike, there is a CSI marathon. And on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and PBS, there is day two of the Sonia Sotomayor marathon -- special all day coverage of the Supreme Court nominee's confirmation hearings. Can you say exciting? Yeah, me neither.

I've watched a little bit of the hearings. Democrats are praising her, Republicans keep bringing up the "wise Latina" comments. But the real question is: will any of this make a bit of difference? No. The Democrats hold a 60-40 majority in the Senate (counting Bernie Sanders, who is an Independent), and Sotomayor only needs to receive 51 votes to be confirmed. As Sen. Lindsay Graham put it yesterday, "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you are going to get confirmed."

So what is the point of all this? I think that an appointment to the Supreme Court is an important matter, and public hearings are a great thing. But I just wonder what Senators are hoping to learn in these three days that they have not been able to learn in the past month and a half. Is there really a need to have three hours of opening statements from senators? There is a finite amount of time before Congress breaks for the summer recess, and a seemingly infinite amount of issues that need to be addressed. So, why is all this grandstanding so important?

Anyway, you can watch SVU, CSI, or Sotomayor, Sotomayor, Sotomayor, and Sotomayor. What channel do you want?