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"Let senators ask whatever they want to," Sen. Arlen Specter told reporters yesterday ``He can protect himself."

The Chicago Tribune's Jan Crawford Greenburg has a good wrap of the day.

Nearly every scribe writes high about Judge Roberts' near-extemporaneous opening statement. The New York Times' Linda Greenhouse found out that "The White House team handling his nomination as chief justice had not seen the statement in advance, and Judge Roberts had not rehearsed it before the "murder board" that helped prepare him for the confirmation process."

"...the positive reaction to Bush's nominee to replace the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and the internal head counts in the Senate have forced Democrats to adopt a different stance in approaching the hearings, one aimed as much at future elections as the question of whether Roberts will become the next chief justice," writes the Washington Post's Dan Balz. "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that, by 2 to 1, Americans say he should be confirmed."

Courtesy of the New York Times, here's yesterday's transcript.

Posted by Marc Ambinder | 08:41 AM