Legal Beat

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter said his former Republican colleagues have made a "mountain out of a mole hill" about Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment.

Specter, who would have been the committee's ranking Republican had he not left the Republican Party in April to seek re-election as a Democrat, added that criticisms of Sotomayor based on the idea that she would be an empathetic justice also were ill-founded.

But Specter, who chaired the Judiciary Committee in the 109th Congress during the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., was as apt as the Republican senators to interrupt Sotomayor. Specter cut her off several times during his questioning to ask another question and redirect her toward his inquiry.