And On We Go ...

- The Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings for Sam Alito begin today at noon with three (plus) hours of opening statements from the senators and then Alito's opening remarks. Questions start tomorrow. I'll be listening in and provide updates as necessary.

- Looks like it'll be a race between Roy Blunt and John Boehner to succeed Tom DeLay for Majority Leader ... given the choice I think I'd probably go with Boehner but I'm not particularly enthused about it. In fact, I'm going to join Rep. John Sweeney and call for new caucus elections for the entire leadership - Speaker Hastert included. For all the coverage of the GOP caucus craziness, Hotline On Call is the place to go these days - they're doing a great job so far. It's certainly going to be an interesting few weeks.

- One more thing on the leadership race: the Tuesday Group, a small caucus of GOP centrists, will interview the candidates for Majority Leader before the end of the month. An aide to one of the moderate members told National Journal that the Tuesday Group members are going to try and "band together" for the leadership contest in order to "secure changes in House operations on ethics, spending, and political gimmicks."