Sean Hannity claimed at the top of his show last night that, in nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, President Obama "turned his back on Middle America" -- because she's a radical liberal who hates them.

So he had on Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who cuts a major figure in the Judiciary Committee, who already had a run-in with Andrea Mitchell over his previous votes on Sotomayor. With Hannity, of course, he had a much friendlier exchange.

Hatch is probably the best gauge of where the GOP is headed on this nomination, and it's clear he intends to vote against her largely on ideological grounds, while holding up the multiple fig leaves of the various talking points they've already already established:

-- She sees an "activist" and expanded role for judges.

-- She's a racist who happily discriminates against white people.

-- She was chosen based on "empathy" as the main criterion.

-- Blah blah blah.

And you know, these things have all been thoroughly debunked. But Republicans seem to develop severe cases of obtuseness and deafness when they get mentioned. Which means they're going to be repeating this stuff endlessly until we get to a vote. Which means that their real plan is to drive us all insane with a toxic mix of boredom and intentional stupidity.