George Will has written his take on Sen Dianne Feinstein's decision not to vote for confirmation of Judge John Roberts as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. (I blogged this a few days ago.) Mr Will ponders Sen Feinstein's disappointment that Judge Roberts did not reveal his feelings about legal issues and concludes that she was really talking about herself–how wonderfully sensitive she is.

Feinstein should have been more fluent because she was talking, as senators are wont to do, about . . . herself. Some of her questions to Roberts were a familiar form of preening, of moral exhibitionism. They were an example of how liberals compete, mostly among themselves, in the sensitivity sweepstakes. She might as well have simply said: Look here, Roberts, are you or are you not in my league as a world-class reacher-outer to, and a stayer-in-touch with, plain people?

Cue the violin.

Along the way, Mr Will reveals his own serious empathy deficit. George, I'm with him on that one.