Put a sock in it, senators

One thing about the Alito hearings has been bipartisan: senators’ stunning waste of time with partisan speechmaking only loosely disguised as questioning. By one account of Tuesday’s proceedings, “10 of the first 12 senators spent more time talking than listening to the nominee’s answers.” (Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., also reportedly was caught catnapping.) Come on — the point of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s line of questioning of Judge Samuel Alito should be Alito’s answers. And a listener should not be able to guess the questioner’s political affiliation five words into his question.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

6 Comments

  1. JUSTA GUY
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 6:43 am | Permalink

    Heck, Sammy has been napping in Washington for years.

  2. Rage
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 7:13 am | Permalink

    This is, unfortunately, predictable. With the exception of Specter and, surprisingly, Mike DeWine, the Repubs have been uncritical cheerleaders. The Dems are mostly trying to make the hearings accessible to the average person–which, is to say, simply and trivialize the weighty issues involved. Senator Kohl is plainly clueless, reading prepared questions and barely comprehending the answers.

    There HAVE been some very revealing (and alarming) exchanges, for those who are willing to listen with a critical mind, and endure the rhetoric. Senator Leahy’s exchanges alone were worth the price of admission.

  3. Rage
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 7:19 am | Permalink

    P.S. Even Kohl managed to point out that Alito was a huge fan of Bork–a year after he was defeated. Bork has since demonstrated beyond all doubt what a dangerous wacko he is.

    By the way, Walker, rejecting Bork didn’t give us Thomas; that’s just silly. We got Kennedy, a very conservative judge, but nothing like Bork.

  4. Joe Williams
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 8:27 am | Permalink

    They are not asking the questions to the nominee, what they are doing is trying to say something that will give them a repeat soundbyte on the evening news. They are speaking for the camera not the nominee. As one Senator on the Judical Committee said. “If it weren’t for television cameras, this hearing would have been done on the first day.”

  5. Rage
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 8:56 am | Permalink

    A bit of an overstatement, Joe. Kennedy is grilling Alito on Vanguard (again) right now, and he’s asking very pointed questions, and listening carefully to the answers.

    But I think it’s well established that Alito ignored a clear conflict of interest. They should move on.

  6. Uncle Sam
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 12:33 pm | Permalink

    The politurds in Washington stink worse than ever! Corruption and abuses of power are the rule of the day. We desperately need to clean house!

    Uncle San