Both parties played their expected roles, as did Sotomayor. In other words, she is going to be drawing a Supreme Court paycheck pretty soon.

Her final few hours were again spent on familiar ground - her "Wise Latina" quote, abortion, gun rights and the Ricci firefighter promotion case.

For a second day, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) worked Sotomayor over on the Second Amendment, telling her that gun rights "hang in the balance" and that it could be her vote that tips the balance the wrong way.

Sotomayor gave him her word that she will approach Second Amendment matters with "an open mind."

GOP Senators again expressed their aggravation with Sotomayor's speeches - "they bug the hell out of me," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who then went on to say that most of the Judge's rulings have often been "in the mainstream."

My hunch is that Graham ends up voting for her nomination.

Democrats again played the tired old role of the party in power in the White House, defending their nominee at every turn, and lobbing up softball questions.

The better way to do it might be to slap a nominee across the forehead with a ruler to get his/her attention, and it might get you some face time on the TV news as well for not being a suck up.

I thought we might get some electricity when two Connecticut firefighters testified after Sotomayor was finished before the committee.

But when Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas told the story of how they studied for a firefighter promotion exam and then had that thrown out by the city of New Haven, they didn't take the next step.

That "next step" would have been to bitterly attack Sotomayor in some way, to urge the Senate to oppose her nomination, etc.

But they didn't come close to doing anything like that. No words of caution about her at all.

So what I thought was going to be a great story line instead fizzled out fast.

What's next? Next Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee will meet to debate and possibly vote on her nomination.

Republians can employ an often used rule which allows the minority to delay a vote on a nominee for one week in the Judiciary Committee.

That will move it to the last week of July. Democrats can vote her nomination out and to the floor, and then we'll have debate into the first week of August.

At this point since health care reform legislation might not be ready, the Sotomayor Debate could fill some time on the floor.

The only question at this point is how many votes she might get in the full Senate.