This will be great -- two bona fide heroes posing the question that Sotomayor needs to answer on live television.

You know -- "Why don't you think we are entitled to equal protection of the law under the Fourteenth Amendment?"

Republicans will call two New Haven firefighters to testify in the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor next week, making clear the GOP's intent to place affirmative action at the center of Senate battle over Sotomayor's nomination.

A Judiciary Committee press release lists Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas as expected Republican witnesses. Ricci was the lead plaintiff in Ricci v. New Haven, the controversial case in which Sotomayor ruled the New Haven fire department acted constitutionally when it promoted black firefighters who scored lower than their white counterparts on a qualifying test. Vargas was the only non-white co-plaintiff in that case.

Demsare bringin in a bunch of political and social elites to support Sotomayor, but these Average Americans are going to have their say, too. How refreshing!

Maybe someone on the committee will press the Wise Latina to explain why she dismissed the rights of these firefighters with no substantive analysis of their case in an opinion of less than a single page.