A two-way spotlight

WASHINGTON

Back in his "Saturday Night Live" days in 1991, during the X-rated Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, Al Franken played a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee less interested in the nominee's qualifications for the U.S. Supreme Court than in his own chances with a cute government receptionist. On Monday, as a real life senator, Franken will debut in his new role as the "people's proxy" on the Judiciary Committee, questioning Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and thrusting himself into the first major judicial battle of the Obama era.

Along with fellow Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, Franken will be part of an outsized Upper Midwest contingent on the sharply divided committee, which includes Wisconsin Democrats Herb Kohl and Russell Feingold.

The two states are the only ones with two senators on the powerful 19-member panel, which bristles with some of the Senate's biggest names and feistiest personalities.

"We need some Midwestern sensibility there," said Klobuchar, who will be taking part in her first hearings on a Supreme Court nominee. "Maybe we will go on less than some past hearings, and listen to the nominee."

The weeklong showdown, which could pave the way for the court's first Hispanic justice, is expected to focus on issues of race and ethnic preference, particularly Sotomayor's record on affirmative action. Senators on both sides are expected to tread carefully in this tricky political thicket, leaving little room for the sort of tension-breaking wisecracks on which Franken built a career.

But while the central focus will be Sotomayor, some of the spotlight certainly will be on Franken, whose classic send-up of Sen. Paul Simon -- whom he played in the SNL skit, still bounces around the Internet, if only in transcript form.

Now, playing himself, Franken gets his first big chance to play down a comedic past that the media have found hard to ignore.

'The American citizen'

Franken's "photo opportunity" with Sotomayor on Thursday attracted such a huge throng of reporters that some were inadvertently barred from his office. One staffer called the crush of media "insane."

The new senator took no questions, but released a statement after the meeting saying he is "thrilled" to participate in the confirmation process. He praised Sotomayor's experience and nodded to her "humble" life story. But he stopped short of saying he would vote for her.

All the same, fellow Democrats expected Franken to be a sure vote for confirmation.

In an interview, Franken, one of only five non-lawyers on the judiciary panel, declined to preview the questions he will put to Sotomayor. But in keeping with the largely sober mood of his first week in office, he said he wants to elicit answers that will shed light not only on her judicial philosophy, but also on the court itself.

"One of the things that I think is of tremendous value in these confirmation hearings is not just weighing the qualifications of the nominee ... but also as a sort of education for the American people," he said. "I'll represent the American citizen watching the confirmation hearings ... more than anybody on the panel."

Franken said he was preparing for his role in a Saturday tutorial with "some of the best legal minds in Minnesota." Among them was former Minnesota Women Lawyers President Luz Maria Frias, who has called for a thoughtful debate on Sotomayor's credentials, not her gender or national origin. "We want to focus on her qualifications," she said.

Democratic leaders who put Franken on the Judiciary Committee say they did so because of his smarts and his engagement in public debate over the past three decades as pugilistic author and radio show host.

"He's been involved, even though it was from a radio commentator's viewpoint, with the big issues," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a longtime friend of the late Simon, the Illinois Democrat Durbin succeeded on the Judiciary Committee.

Franken called himself "somebody who always watches confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees, and have always taken an interest in the constitution and the court." That was evident in 1991, when SNL did its spoof on the lurid sexual harassment allegations featuring former Clarence Thomas assistant Anita Hill.

'Front lines'

As the senator with the least seniority on the committee, Franken will be the last to quiz Sotomayor -- probably sometime midweek, after all the more senior senators have given their opening statements and gone through their first round of questions.

Among them will be Klobuchar, a former Hennepin County Attorney who said she will focus on their mutual experience as prosecutors. Klobuchar has spoken twice with Sotomayor, once in person. She has come out praising Sotomayor's "pragmatism" and registering herself as a solid "yes" vote on her confirmation.

"Sometimes we have judges who are so removed from the front lines of decisions police have to make, and she is not," Klobuchar said. "That's a very important fact that has to get in there."

While Klobuchar and other Democrats have sought to place Sotomayor in the mainstream of American jurisprudence, some Republicans on the committee have focused on her background as a lawyer for a Puerto Rican advocacy group to question her impartiality on race and class issues. They have also focused on Sotomayor's much-reported "wise Latina" remark, and her appeals court decision against a group of white firefighters in New Haven, recently overturned by the Supreme Court.

Among her leading critics is Alabama's Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the committee. Sessions brings with him experience as a federal prosecutor who was rejected as a Supreme Court nominee in 1986 over hotly disputed allegations of racial insensitivity.

Up against Sessions will be New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, one of the most partisan and forceful liberals in the Senate.

The backdrop in the debate will be Sotomayor's own rise from a public housing project in the Bronx to the rarefied air of Princeton, Yale Law School, and the federal bench. Democrats are expected to put the spotlight on her life story, making it harder for Republicans to criticize her record as a judge.

But Minnesota's Democrats on the panel say they are happy to wade into maze of case law that makes up Sotomayor's 17 years as a judge.

"I have no quarrel with [Republicans] wanting to look at her decisions in any area," Klobuchar said. "But it has to be remembered that people always like to pick out one case, and I'm not going to agree with every decision she's made in every case."

Franken also expressed a bring-it-on attitude in his statement after meeting Sotomayor. "The current Supreme Court has been sliding back on the rights of Americans as employees, as parents, as consumers, and as investors," he said. "It is critical that the next appointee understand the importance of these protections."

Kevin Diaz • 202-404-2753