WASHINGTON, D.C. - It has been three years since Sen. Amy Klobuchar practiced law, but her background proved useful on Thursday when President Obama's Supreme Court nominee dropped by her office for a chat.
Flanked by security and trailed by a horde of photographers, Sonia Sotomayor roamed the halls of Capitol Hill meeting with senators - three of whom, including Klobuchar, shared her background as a former prosecutor. The meetings were the latest in a round of visits to Congress this week, as the Bronx native gets acquainted with Washington before her confirmation hearings.
Klobuchar, who was the Hennepin County attorney before joining the Senate, spent nearly an hour with Sotomayor discussing the nominee's experiences as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and later as a judge.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Klobuchar will vote on whether to send Sotomayor's nomination on to the entire Senate. Hearings have not yet been scheduled.
Describing the nominee as "engaging" with "a lot of energy," Klobuchar said in an interview that their talk focused on Sotomayor's approach to the legal practice and her written opinions.
The senator spoke with Sotomayor about a couple of her past statements that have been drawing attention, including one in a 2001 speech in which she said that "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Some people branded the remark, made at a cultural diversity seminar, as racist.
"She said that she understood why people viewed those words in a different context and she thought that was unfortunate - that she didn't mean it in that way by any means," Klobuchar said.
She added that Sotomayor "said she believes in holding on to your cultural values and your experiences but also understanding other people's."
