Democrats offer praise, Republicans urge caution

WASHINGTON - Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the only Minnesotan with a definite say over President Obama's pick for a Supreme Court justice, played her cards carefully Tuesday after the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Stopping short of saying the nation's first Hispanic nominee has her vote, Klobuchar made it clear that she is "very positive" about her nomination.

"I really want to talk to her and ask her questions before I make a final decision," the senator said. "But I am impressed by her, by her story, her background, her vast experience as a prosecutor, the fact that she was described as 'fearless,' which is always a good thing."

Meanwhile, Minnesota GOP Chairman Ron Carey urged Klobuchar to tread even more cautiously, saying of Sotomayor that "the American people deserve to understand her positions, including some concerning statements she has made about policy being made on the bench."

An underlying reality

Both responses reflected the underlying political reality, which is that Klobuchar and most other Senate Democrats are expected to support Obama's nominee, and that many Republicans, though probably not all, will resist.

Klobuchar, who will participate in the confirmation hearings as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she hopes to avoid some of the vitriol of past nomination battles.

While some Republican critics have cited the clip as evidence of Sotomayor's likely judicial activism, Klobuchar dismissed it as a joke. "If we took everything out of context that people said in law schools, we wouldn't have any nominees on the bench," she said.

'She's earned her stripes'

U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery, a Minnesotan who befriended Sotomayor at a 2001 Hague Convention conference on missing children, takes a similar view. "When you get in a more comfortable setting, speaking to students or other judges, just chatting about things, it's easier to make -- I don't want to call it a slip -- but you get a little more casual," she said.

Montgomery, who has visited Sotomayor several times in New York, describes her as "a real down-to-earth person. ... She's lived life. She knows what the struggles of the common person are firsthand, not just vicariously."

Montgomery also respects Sotomayor as a judge: "In terms of doing her work in the trenches, so to speak, of the federal judiciary, she's earned her stripes."

Minnesotans on both sides of the political divide embraced the breaking of a new ethnic barrier that Sotomayor represents.

"There's a lot of symbolism with her, just like with Obama himself," said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, a DFLer.

Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, praised her "impeccable body of judicial experience."

Norm Coleman, in a recount battle to retain his U.S. Senate seat, said the nomination of a Hispanic woman is "something all Americans should applaud." Like other Republicans, he also emphasized the importance of selecting a judge "committed to following the Constitution rather than creating new law and policy."

Coleman's DFL rival, Al Franken, described her nomination as "history making." He said, "I look forward to joining my colleagues as we examine Judge Sotomayor's qualifications."