The battle over Sotomayor rages -- within the GOP

The battle for the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor isn't talking place in the U.S. Senate. Most people understand that she's going to get confirmed, probably this summer. Her nomination really isn't that controversial.

But, there is a battle raging over the nomination -- an intra-GOP battle.

In one corner are some GOP Senators who are trying to be politically pragmatic. One of them is Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), who has flip-flopped on whether or not to filibuster Sotomayor. Over the weekend, Cornyn "wouldn't rule out a filibuster." Yesterday, he switched to being against the filibuster:

“We don’t have enough Republicans to filibuster even if we wanted to, which I don’t think we do,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Cornyn runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is charged with electing more Republican Senators. Things haven't been going so well for the NRSC. Back in 2006, there were 55 members of the GOP caucus. Now, there are 40. So, Cornyn is trying to look beyond the narrow, extreme base. But, in the GOP, that's really not feasible.

In the other corner are the extreme, right wing activists in the GOP who want a filibuster -- and, right now, they seem to be running the party:

Conservative activists are pressing Senate Republicans to put up stiff opposition to Sotomayor.

The Third Branch Conference, a coalition of conservatives including David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union; Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; and Gary Bauer, president of American Values, signed a letter to GOP leaders urging them to consider a filibuster of Sotomayor. The effort was organized by Third Branch Chairman Manuel Miranda.

Throw in Rush and Newt and that's pretty much the leadership of GOP these days.

Miranda, used to work for the Senate Republicans, but got involved in a scandal, for which some of those Republican Senators ended up referring him to the Justice Department. Sounds like Miranda is bitter. Now, he's taken to calling GOP Senators "limp-wristed."

While Sotomayor proceeds towards her seat on the Supreme Court, the Republicans are waging a proxy battle for control of their party. My money in this fight is on the activists. They'll make the Republican Senators cave. They always do.