Today’s Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearing will be Al Franken’s Senate debut and he’s just about to make his opening statement—the last senator to do so, thanks to his status as the most junior member of the Judiciary Committee. Technically, though, this won’t be Franken’s first Supreme Court hearing: In October 1991, he played Senator Paul Simon, the bow-tied fuddy-duddy from Illinois, in a Saturday Night Live sketch lampooning the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings. In the sketch, the all-male panel (chaired by Kevin Nealon’s Joe Biden and also featuring a memorable turn by Chris Farley as Alabama’s Howell Heflin) compares notes with Thomas on how to hit on women.
