[KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images]

Leave it to Al Franken, now in his seventh day as a U.S. senator, to cut to the chase. Rather than ask Sonia Sotomayor even more airy questions about case law and judicial precedence, Franken figured the best way to decide whether to give her the job was to treat her hearings like a job interview. Why do you think you'd be a good Supreme Court justice? he posed her simply. Sotomayor asked if she could paint him a picture: "Can I tell you a story?"  Franken agreed. She took the senator and the hearing room back to the early days of her career, when she was being considered for a federal judgeship in New York. Her mom, Celina, upon hearing that her daughter could land the prestigious position, was as pleased as any mother would be. But all of the prospects that initially excited Mom─big money, foreign travel, cushy client benefits─the judge-to-be systematically shot down, explaining that the job wouldn't come with many, if any, frills. Rather, it was about public service. She explained she had a "sense of importance about the rule of law, how it's central to our society," and described her passion that "led me to want to be a lawyer first and now a judge. I can't think of any greater service that I can give to the country than if I were given the privilege to be a justice of the Supreme Court." The answer was good enough for Franken, but some at the press tables were wondering how Sotomayor, seasoned in legal-speak, could have spun another classic job-interview question: what's your biggest weakness?