Republicans continued to recalibrate their responses to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court as she visited Senators on Capitol Hill. Jeff Session yesterday sounded conciliatory while keeping his options open, despite assumptions that he might look to even a few scores with Democrats, especially Joe Biden. Lindsey Graham, usually one of the Republicans keen to work on bipartisan efforts, chose a much more combative tone after his meeting with Sotomayor:

Actually, by the time he got to Shepherd Smith, Graham had mellowed. He told reporters immediately after his meeting that he was still trying to decide whether to use the “Obama standard,” and that he couldn’t vote for her if he did. Graham explains it in more detail in this clip, but doesn’t commit himself quite as much. He said he will demand an explanation of her comments about Latina women making better judges than other ethnicities in the hearings. “I would hope that a lot of Latino men and women would be offended by her comments,” Graham said, and he explained the difference between her statement and the one made by Samuel Alito during his hearings that the Left has trotted out as a false equivalency.

Will Graham’s support of the Amnesty Lite bill give him the authority to get tough on Sotomayor without angering Latino voters? We’ll see, if Graham stays this tough. Like Sessions, he wants the hearings scheduled in the fall for more research — and also to ensure that (a) the Ricci decision is out and (b) to keep it from distracting Republicans from fighting Obama’s health-care plans.