Being a New York woman in the Obama administration seems like a dangerous thing to be these days.

First, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor broke her ankle in a fall en route to Washington from New York.

Now, former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who's already safely traveled thousands of miles around the world as President Obama's secretary of State, tripped and fell near the White House on Wednesday, breaking her right elbow. (See right elbow above.)

The 61-year-old former first lady was en route to a meeting there and was treated and released from George Washington University Hospital.

According to a brief midnight announcement from an aide, Clinton will undergo surgery next week to repair the damage. So much for handshaking for a while. Sotomayor is making her way around Capitol Hill to Senate interviews on crutches.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press