Just a quick note to prepare you for the fair and balanced coverage of the John Roberts confirmation hearings you’ll surely be reading in the coming days.

Before the opening bell on the hearings rang, the AP provided a predictably slanted breakdown of the eighteen members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

There are ten Republicans on the Committee and eight Democrats. Surely this accounts for six mentions of the word ‘abortion’ in the Republican bios and only one for the Democrats.

Similarly, there are nine mentions of the word ‘conservative’ among the majority while only Ted Kennedy of the minority is tagged with the word ‘liberal’ and he’s labeled a “stalwart” one at that.

And you’ll have to read the whole piece to find out why AP chose to include the following:

Cheney ran Halliburton before becoming vice president.