Final Day of Nomination Hearings: Yawn.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), a stalwart supporter of Roberts, skipped most of the afternoon session. Instead, this distinguished committee member distributed laminated cards labeled "Crying Wolf Bingo" with words such as "Ideologue!" "Partisan!" "Far Right!" "Zealot!" "Extremist!" An accompanying news release chronicled "the sad history of attacks against previous nominees."

In the hallway outside the hearing room, the scene had the feel of open-microphone night at a karaoke bar, as liberal and conservative lobbyists lined up in front of two idle television cameras to give their views. It wasn't clear whether any of the footage -- filmed by C-SPAN and a pooled network camera -- would ever see the airwaves.

Among the appearances most of the senators missed:

Roberts friend and legal partner Kathryn Webb Bradley, calling herself a Democrat who didn't support President Bush in either election, said she felt "confident entrusting my own rights and those of my children and their generation to John Roberts for safekeeping."

On the other side, Roderick Jackson, a high school girls basketball coach from Alabama, spoke of how a 5 to 4 Supreme Court ruling saved his job after he was fired for complaining about unequal treatment of girls. "A shift in even one vote would have left me without any remedy," he said.

The thing that seemed to alarm Democrats was not Roberts himself or his writings but the fact that ideologues on the right love him so much. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) held a news conference during the afternoon hearing and waved "publications from conservative journals" assuring conservatives that they should be "secure in knowing they have a true soul spirit with this nominee."

At times yesterday, the hearing took a promising turn, as when Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) pleaded with Roberts to say whether he would be a Felix Frankfurter, a William Rehnquist or an Antonin Scalia.

"I think if you've looked at what I've done since I took the judicial oath; that should convince you that I'm not an ideologue," Roberts replied. "And you and I agree that that's not the sort of person we want on the Supreme Court."

It was a powerful moment -- while it lasted. Cornyn broke in to criticize Democrats' demands for more Roberts papers. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) started talking about Paris Hilton's telephone records. Graham requested time to denounce the views of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's views on prostitution.

And, with that, Specter put an end to the questioning of Roberts.