Newest Senator Meets High Court Nominee

July 09, 2009 3:19 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose confirmation hearings start next Monday, met today with the newest member of the Senate Judiciary Committee – and the newest senator, too.

You can still smell the fresh paint in Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s office in the Hart Senate Office building. But he will be on the dais to question Sotomayor next week. If all other Democrats show up (unlikely), he could help Democrats break a filibuster of Sotomayor if Republicans decide to mount one.

Sotomayor has met with 88 or 89 Senators – depending on your tally.

Her plaster cast has given way to a walking air cast sort of thing. Someone asked her if her leg was feeling better and she said, “much.”

That was all she said when reporters were allowed in to get quick pictures of her with Franken.

And it seems that being in the presence of a comedian made reporters try their hand at jokes too. Even though there’s no indication that he has been injured in his first days on the job, after Sotomayor said her foot feels better, a reporter asked Franken how his foot was doing.

He chuckled and said, “It's much worse, actually.”

But that was it. Nothing today on murder boards or the second amendment or affirmative action.