From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Senate confirmation. What's the point?

Hello again, I'm Mormon Alney, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

After a week of heavily covered hearings, liberals are disappointed. Conservatives are still suspicious of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. It appears she nailed down Senate confirmation with an unflappable performance that revealed almost nothing about what she really thinks. But Republican senators laid out a blueprint for campaigns to come

with sharp questions about abortion, gun rights, and same-sex marriage. If they didn't learn

much about the U.S. Supreme Court, what did voters, including Hispanics, learn about the Republican

agenda? On reporter's notebook later on, a senior cleric fires up political protesters at Friday prayers in Iran.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

Foundation, and the Scholl Foundation, supporting social entrepreneurs around the world, uncommon heroes

dedicated to the common good. Learn more at scole.org. Hello again, Warren Alney, back with

To the Point. Judge Sonia Sotomayor appears likely to be confirmed as the first Hispanic on

the U.S. Supreme Court. Republican senators say they won't try to stop her. Two of them endorsed her today. What did they learn, though, from three days of pointed questions? And what did they tell American voters about their own aims and objectives? On reporters notebook, more protests today on the streets of Tehran as a senior Iranian cleric calls for

resolving doubt about the recent election, free speech, and the release of political prisoners.

First, this news update in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Two suicide bombers attacked

the Marriott and the Rich Carlton hotels. The attacks were almost simultaneous, killing

at least eight people and wounding more than 50.

Donald Emerson is director of the Southeast Asia Forum at Stanford University.

He's also affiliated scholar at the Abasi program in Islamic Studies.

Professor Emerson, good to have you on our program.

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