U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor meets with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., in his office on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Wednesday.

AP / Susan Walsh

WASHINGTON — As a junior senator on the 19-member committee that will consider Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sheldon Whitehouse won’t be able to chime in on every argument made during her confirmation hearings, he said Wednesday.

But the Rhode Island Democrat made it clear that he wants to speak up when his background can help the New York appeals court judge to defend her fitness to serve on the high court.

So Whitehouse set out to establish common ground with Sotomayor from the moment they met at his Senate office Wednesday morning and exchanged small talk before the news cameras about what it’s like to be a prosecutor.

The discussion continued during a private session with aides that lasted about half an hour. “I talked about my early days in the attorney general’s office with my files and boxes stacked in heaps,” Whitehouse said later. Sotomayor told how her workspace in the office of the famed Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morganthau was “smaller than a cell,” he said.

They agreed that it’s “hard to beat” the sensation of standing up in court to identify oneself as the attorney who represents “the people,” Whitehouse said.

The former attorney general and U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island expanded on his courtroom experience to defend Sotomayor against critics who have, in his words, have “misconstrued” Sotomayor’s demeanor as a judge to suggest that “she is either impolite or uncivil.”

Whitehouse said that when he asked her about the criticism, she depicted herself as respectful toward lawyers, juries and court personnel. Whitehouse portrayed the criticism of Sotomayor as a misunderstanding of a jurist who is a blunt and direct questioner of lawyers who argue cases before her.

Sotomayor is a judge who takes the “hot bench” approach, Whitehouse said, using lawyers’ jargon for the judicial style of getting at the essential issues of a case by quizzing the attorneys who argue it. Whitehouse said he appreciated a hot bench when he argued cases in appeals courts, because it gave a sense of where the judge was coming from and helped to expose the weaknesses in a legal argument.

Some conservatives have harshly criticized Sotomayor since President Obama nominated her last week to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. But Whitehouse expressed doubt that his Republican colleagues would indulge in attacks on her that fall out of bounds. Sotomayor has twice won Senate confirmation with Republican votes — first to the federal trial court that covers New York City, then to the appellate court that covers the states of New York, Vermont and Connecticut.

“Most things are fair game in this process,” Whitehouse said when he was asked about the partisan exaggeration that has often marked the debate over presidential nominations to the federal courts. Exaggeration to make a point is within bounds, said Whitehouse, who used strong language to criticize judicial nominations by then-President George W. Bush.

But Whitehouse added, “It is important not to confuse things that ought not to be confused.” Thus, he argued, Sotomayor’s tough questioning from the hot bench should not be confused with an uncivil judicial temperament.

When Bush nominated a Republican judge to the federal appeals court in Boston in 2007, Whitehouse charged that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. both violated pledges to honor judicial precedent that they had made during their Senate confirmation hearings.

After Bush nominated U.S. District Court William E. Smith to the Boston court, Whitehouse sought to put Smith’s record in the context of Bush’s earlier nominations. At the time, Whitehouse raised the possibility that Smith could make promises during confirmation hearings and go back on his word later. “You’ve got to make sure that the guy’s not a stalking horse for Bush ideology,” Whitehouse said of Smith — who had won confirmation to the federal court in 2002, without a dissenting vote from either party.

Democrats never scheduled hearings on Smith’s nomination, so it died when Mr. Obama took office.

Sotomayor’s talk with Whitehouse came early in her second day of ritual courtesy calls on Senate leaders and members of the Judiciary Committee. That panel will hold hearings on her record and then vote on whether to recommend that the full senate confirm her nomination to the Supreme Court. Democrats command a 12-to-7 voting majority on the committee and a 59-to-40 advantage in the full Senate, so her confirmation appears very likely. Whitehouse said he is almost certain to vote for Sotomayor.

The timing of her likely confirmation is unclear. Mr. Obama has requested a vote before the Senate adjourns for its summer recess in August. That would get Sotomayor seated before the Supreme Court begins its next session in the fall. But some Republicans have said the Senate should take longer to study her extensive record as a federal judge.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com