Monday, each Senator had ten minutes to speechify on their views regarding Alito’s confirmation.
Yesterday, Senators get 30 minutes each in round one of questioning. Thirty minutes to budget. Thirty minutes to spend on an historic, momentous issue: the confirmation of a justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, a court in whose hands our liberties lie in a time of unprecedented assertions of executive power.
So what care does Biden take with our freedom and democracy. He fritters his time and our liberties away while clowining around.
In the Roberts hearing Biden flitted about for 9 minutes before landing on his first question.
I thought he could not do worse. See how wrong I was on the flip and “bet” on the over under for today’s “questions” from Biden.
The NYT noticed, too and had this headline today:
But Enough About You, Judge; Let’s Hear What I Have to Say
Here is what I “liveblogged” to myself as I heard Biden on C-SPAN’s replay last night:
He took 12 plus minutes to ask his first question of Alito today.
He has 30 minutes total time.
To top it off, he asked a “could you explain” question.
3 minutes into the answer, Biden inserts his next long-winded “clarification” of the question, and changes the question to a speculation about the company rule in question.
19 total minutes have elapsed and Alito starts in on the answer again.
Biden rambles about the details of the case in question, making more of a statement than a question then asks, “Why not let the jury decide, what was your thinking?” Another open-ended beauty.
We are now at the 20 minute mark.
Biden talks about how he is puzzled about the reason, talks about what got his attention, talks about his own ineptness, babbles, then says let’s move on to another case. 22 minute mark.
At the almost the 25 minute mark (with some of it taken up with a lame joke based on an inapt analogy to Sen. Feinstein’s glasses) he gets to the next open ended question.
Alito starts his explanation: 3 camps, mine was the middle position, in X precedent Z and Q. He is brief (had he wanted, he could probably consumed all of Biden’s remaining time right there).
At the 26 minute mark Biden says the X precedent shows there would have been a different conclusion than you drew (in many more words and justifiably greater detail) but asks no question. Just states his opinion. Concludes with, “But who knows?” 26 minute mark.
Alito explains more, Biden cuts in, prefaced with, “You would know better than I, judge.” He then quotes from the case, says “It seems to me . . . ” Then, “But at any rate it’s your day job, so let me move on!!!!”
Realizing he has 2 minutes left, he babbles about maybe that’s not enough time. He’s on to Casey (abortion) and babbles about how others, Cass Sunstein and others may know more. He admits he may be wrong. Will he get a question in?
NO!! He cracks a joke that he is, for the first time ever, 40 seconds under his allotted time, and quits with that sick joke he just played on our Constitutional process.
Listen for yourself at c-span if you think you can stand it. Trust me, it is much worse than I described.
Scotusblog, which is about as fair and balanced a liveblog of this hearing can be, can barely restrain itself from heavy snark.
Biden is using OUR hearing to grandstand and clown around. He is wasting the little time WE have to get questions answered and to expose Alito for what he is. Biden is providing cover for Alito, and could not have done worse had he been paid by Bush to stall and run out the clock.
Shorter Biden: “Me, me, me, judge. See me grin. What do you think about that? Oh, never mind — time’s up. Ha, Ha”
Worst. Questioner. Ever.
Tell him so here as I did in this letter (doubt we’ll see results today):
Subject: How to ask cross-ex questions
If you need training I, a committed Democrat and professional debate coach, can give you some free of charge.
But if it is not training that you need, if you really know what you are doing, then you are irresponsible for wasting your precious little time, the people’s time, the Democratic Party’s time, today.
I should have sent this message after I heard you take 9 of your 30 minutes to get to your first question in the Roberts hearing. But I thought that might have been a one-time deal and that surely someone would call it to your attention so it could be corrected.
I thought you could not do worse. But today you did. Twelve grinning, rambling minutes to get to a question.
Please construct a tight line of yes/no questions tomorrow. Our liberty is on the line here.
It is disgusting to make a self-aggrandizing mockery (yes, your self-effacing “jokes” were transparent) of this profoundly important constitutional process.
The picture at the NYT article linked above says it all. Unlike the NYT print front pgae it does not show Biden gesticulating in a wider shot, but Leahy’s pose is struck while Biden is bloviating.
Here is the NYT take:
The highest ratio of words per panelist to words per nominee was that of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, who managed to ask five questions in his 30-minute time allotment.
“I understand, Judge, I am the only one standing between you and lunch, so I’ll try to make this painless,” he began, with some promise.
Some promise, indeed.
Mr. Biden then dived into a soliloquy on Judge Alito’s failure to recuse himself from cases involving the Vanguard mutual fund company, which managed the judge’s investments. After 2 minutes 50 seconds – short for the senator – Mr. Biden did appear to veer toward a question, but abandoned it to cite Judge Alito’s membership in a conservative Princeton alumni group. Mr. Biden discoursed on that for a moment, then interrupted himself with an aside about his son who “ended up going to that other university, the University of Pennsylvania.”
Judge Alito, who had been sitting without expression through Mr. Biden’s musings, interrupted the senator midword, got out three sentences, then settled in for nearly 26 minutes more of Mr. Biden, with the senator doing most of the talking. With less than a minute to spare, Mr. Biden concluded, thanked Judge Alito for “being responsive,” then said to Mr. Specter that “I want to note that for maybe the first time in history, Biden is 40 seconds under his time.”
The audience laughed appreciatively.
I, for one, cannot laugh. I want to cry as I see an unethical waste of an historic opportunity.
Biden: Worst. Questioner. Ever.
Go right to the top, and tell ’em “No” to Alito’s confirmation:
Phone, fax, and email addresses for the Judiciary Committee.
Here’s another “Veto Alito” tool:
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper and contact your congress critters — all with one click.
People for the American Way have sent over 60,000 letters to the Senate:
Save the Court Petition
Why, then, can’t a U.S. Senator do his job?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I. Can’t. Stand. Biden.
I read the NYT article earlier today, and the paragraph you quoted – coupled with our shared, appalled reactions to the hearings – pretty much sums it all up for me.
I think Dershowitz got it right. He said that Senators simply are not qualified to conduct this level of questioning, which should be left in the hands of constitutional scholars. I couldn’t agree with him more. (Nothing less than the future of our nation is riding on this.)
In an interview earlier today, Dershowitz critiqued the Senators’ behavior as mostly “posturing” and “pandering”, and mentioned that these “failed hearings” are “. . .bad theater”. “Very bad theater” He did give some props to Feingold and a couple others, but in general he felt the Senators were “not equipped” to question Alito.
Biden sets the gold standard of the ill-equipped. And it’s time for him to go.
Well, he does it all the time: at every hearing, on every TV talk show. It’s pathological. His voice has become sort of like continuous foreground noise.
I used to despise him. But when I think of his home life, I feel really sorry for him. He should never be permitted out in public without a minder. I understand it gets worse with age.
Hi Anomalous! Good to see you.
Do my eyes deceive me? Break out the champagne! (My face hurts from the enormous smile that has yet to leave my face – your entrance really caught me off guard there, Jane. :^)
It seems that I don’t get out enough, because you’ve baffled me with your comment about Biden’s home life. What’s up with that? (Assuming, of course, that I’m not asking you to exceed your self-imposed limit of one post/month ;^)
Allow me to add this to my comment above. I. Can’t. Stand. Tweety. But I think he might be receiving some coaching, because he actually let Orrin Hatch speak without interruption. Oh wait . . . he didn’t show the same regard to Hatch’s counterpart in the discussion – Dick Durbin. (Never mind.)
God bless your precious heart, my dear child!
I see now that I was more mysterious than I meant to be about JB’s home life. I know nothing about it — just made an imaginary leap of assumption. What must it be like to share a house with him – in any capacity?
I see the family at the dinner table, him holding forth volubly, interminably,, while his wife and kids sit cowed, smiling weakly, trying to be very quiet with their silverware.
Can you imagine Tweety at dinner with them?Talking simultaneously through and over Joe in his querelous raspy, high-pitched snarl? I’m going too far. Maybe I post more rarely than usual because I have this mean streak — as you see — and it grows more vicious daily, watching these frauds. I’m afraid I may be too far gone to participate in reasoned discourse.
Did you see or hear someone, somewhere today remark that he was sitting behind Alito and watched as his ears (Alito’s ears) turn red with fury? It did happen when I wsn’t paying particular attention. This was before the Missus cried and after all our guys had had their chance to showcase themselves at their obnoxious, grandstanding worst.
I’ll be looking for you; in the meantime I’ll try to cultivate a decent, rational calm before I post.
Nooooo – don’t go! Forget about your need for rational calm – this is all about ME and MY needs (oops – channeled some Biden and Tweety for a moment there).
Someone posted a diary in which they questioned whether Mrs. Alito was bipolar. My thoughts? Who among us wouldn’t cry if we found ourselves in the same room as Biden and a microphone. (Whether or not he was using it at the time is of little relevance – there was always the chance that he might stage a “podium coup”)
Dinner with the Bidens and the Tweetys? You really crossed the line of evil by putting that thought in my head. (Now I need to go get a tissue and wish myself to a happy place.)
Hey! Thanks for exceeding your monthly quota of posts. (For ME!) If you ever need to let loose with a good long rant, just tack it on to one of my comments (whether it’s pertinent to the subject at hand or not). I promise to clean up the mess afterward, although I can’t imagine much of a clutter since you’re not one to lash out inappropriately. (But maybe I just haven’t found the right buttons to push ;^)
So good to see you! And thanks for starting my day on a joyful note by referring to this worn-down, middle-ager as a “dear child”. (hee!) But please don’t leave the vicinity until you’ve shared at least one metaphor. (Lord knows – you have plenty of material to work with ;^)
Good day, m’dear!
Hope you flip back here so I can ask your permission to borrow “podium coup.” Can’t you just see such a thing? Biden is especially anxious never to relinquish his. What do you want to bet he gets his own TV show some day soon – he’d be in pig heaven. His favoritw guests would be ….,,,,?