Both sides have a political rationale (Republicans don't want to look like they're yet again attacking a woman and are out of touch with issues facing women; the Dems want the Republicans to look out of touch with these issues), but only the Dems have a viable non-political reason--the members of the judiciary panel are the ones voting and this is not a difficult factual issue to investigate through questioning (unlike, say, the science behind global warming). So if anyone is definitely playing politics on this issue (i.e., who gets to do the questioning) it's the Republicans.