Until today, Americans had only listened to brief comments from Judge John Roberts, Brit Hume pointed out on FNC this afternoon. "We have no real sense of the man from what we've been able to see. Today we'll have a much more extended version of his thinking. He'll introduce himself to us, really, for the first time."

Hume told Chris Wallace: "And unlike these senators, nearly all of whose statements have been distributed ahead of time, were written in advance and were reading, as you saw, with Senator Kennedy in particular and others as well, reading basically from prepared text, Judge Roberts is supposed to speak without a text. Now how extemporaneous will be really and how much he has memorized is something that, who knows. But we'll get a sense of how agile he is. And it may be that he has chosen to do it this way so that he can pick up on points that have been raised in some of the -- in some of the statements made by the senators.

But I think it's going to be -- that will be the moment to really watch. Because that will be fascinating."

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