WASHINGTON – When senators convene on Monday for Judge Sonya Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, Republicans alone will start with open minds.

Startling as that is, that is Texas Sen. John Cornyn's contention as he and other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee pick their way through the minefield Democrats have set.

"They have already decided, as a political matter, to support this nomination," Cornyn said the other day. "I literally have not made up my mind."

This might strike some voters as disingenuous.

It is, after all, Cornyn and his side raising alarms every day about Sotomayor's "cramped and restrictive view" of gun rights and her alleged aversion to "colorblind justice" – concerns the senator continued to push in the final days before she treks to the Capitol, takes the oath, and submits to grueling hours of blustery opening statements, followed by days of interrogation.

"Why have a hearing if people are going to make up their minds without a hearing? That's the purpose of a hearing. In the past, these have served as high drama, and they have the capacity to change minds," Cornyn said. "Most people in my party have said we're not going to prejudge and we're not going to pre-confirm Judge Sotomayor."

Given the options available to the GOP side, this isn't a bad way to frame things, especially in contrast to the boast last week from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, that the nomination is a "slam dunk."

Consider the perils for Republicans.

Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic justice. Her patron, the president, remains wildly popular despite unemployment creeping toward double digits.

It hardly needs to be said that Hispanic clout is growing, and the GOP's future, already gloomy, won't improve by alienating the bloc with the biggest emotional investment in this nomination.

And consider the Republicans' current force posture in the Senate. With Minnesota finally seating a winner from last November, comedian Al Franken, Democrats have attained the filibuster-proof 60-seat supermajority they have sought.

In other words, Republicans have little hope of derailing this nomination.

One option would be to passively allow the confirmation to proceed. But interest groups (on both sides) plot for and dream of these battles for years; so much is at stake in terms of social policy, and these fights drive fundraising and recruiting.

Another option is to try to soften the Obama team by chipping away at Sotomayor's luster, bit by bit. Nothing radical. Nothing shrill. Nothing unsubstantiated. Because the Democrats won't always have 60 votes, and the president won't always be so untouchable.

"You know, Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judge," Cornyn said. "She basically has described herself in those terms. What we don't know is if she's committed to setting aside those personal views and enforcing the law as written. There have been a number of troubling decisions."

So, the Republicans' witness list will – with an open mind, of course – include the former head of the National Rifle Association, the head of an anti-abortion group, and two New Haven, Conn., firefighters who were denied promotion unfairly, according to the Supreme Court, which overturned a ruling to the contrary by Sotomayor.

"We're trying to highlight the areas of concern," Cornyn said. "That's all."

Todd J. Gillman is Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.