A Day of Firsts, Overshadowed

"Don't take the bait," suggested Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said it is "patently false" that Roberts must provide answers. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) thought it could be "unethical."

Democrats were almost as uniform in the opposite view. "It is our duty to ask questions," Kennedy replied.

"It is not undignified to ask questions," submitted Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.).

"It is our obligation to ask and your obligation to answer," Schumer said.

Roberts sat still, shoulders slightly rounded, moving his head thoughtfully from side to side, and keeping a polite gaze on each speaking senator; after three hours of this, the nominee shamed the lawmakers with a brief speech blending jurisprudence and the national pastime. "I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat," he said.

Specter, determined to keep the proceedings on schedule, even cut himself off at the 10-minute mark, saying, "I'm down to 10 seconds . . . that's it."

But there were unscripted moments. Cornyn and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) spent a chunk of the afternoon whispering and joking. A woman in a 19th-century hat and dress sat in the back of the room wearing a "Women for Roberts" sticker. After Feingold predicted longevity for the 50-year-old nominee because he looks "healthy," Coburn, a doctor, said that cannot be predicted without a "physical exam or a family history" -- neither of which is on this week's hearing schedule.

A television camera behind Coburn caught the senator working a crossword puzzle. But Coburn went from detachment to emotional overdrive when it was his turn to talk; seconds after asserting that "a super-legislator body is not what the court was intended to be," he paused and wept.

Colleagues looked alarmed. One GOP committee aide put his hand to his mouth. It was the biggest Senate choke-up since Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) cried while opposing the nomination of the ambassador to the United Nations -- and Coburn has to get through three more days of hearings.