Roll Call ($) had an interesting note in their report on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy's (D-VT) efforts to avoid as much partisan overheating as possible:

The Senate makes additional funds available to the committee for the nomination process, and Leahy has agreed to split these resources evenly with Republicans, despite Democrats’ majority on the panel.

Interesting.

The committee is currently divided 12-7 in favor of Democrats. The money gets divided 50/50.

It won't help matters to make a big stink over the money, but it's... interesting. It certainly pays to do whatever you can to minimize the rancor. And since the Republicans are, I think, pretty well aware that they're going to get stomped in any attempt to block her nomination as things now stand, I suppose you might be interested in smoothing ruffled feathers with a few dollars, in exchange for getting a nominee through.

But it is interesting to see what happens when Specter's switch and the subsequent need for reorganizing the committees he sits on puts the GOP over a barrel. One answer: They get 13% more money than they're entitled to. And to do what? To probe for weaknesses in the Sotomayor nomination.

These are the small battles you're supposed to bypass in the whole "pick your battles" thing, I suppose. Just wanted to note it.