That’s how it should be. Simple, direct, and done. Ask a FEW questions to verify the guys isn’t a flaming loony and get warm fuzzies about his competence/experience and get on with it.
ROFLMAO. You RULE! 
You guys don’t get it. In any confirmation hearing, if the Senators are doing most of the talking, the nominee is winning. If the nominee is doing most of the talking, he is doomed to defeat. So if Senators are monopoolizing the microphone and the nominee is quietly listening, why are you complaining. Oh, I forgot, it because that is what you do best, even when you get your way. :wally
Maybe it just seems to me that Kennedy’s behavior was par for the course. He seems pretty civil right now. What really got my goat was Biden’s(sp) attitude. He started off with an 8 minute monologue (I think the commentators timed it) and then would ask a question about a case while setting it up that Ginsberg answered it. And as Roberts either tried to answer it or give a reason why he wouldn’t feel comfortable, he would cut him off. The chairman reprimanded Biden quit a few times and he would come back with how little time he has and that Roberts is filibustering or not answering the question. There was also a memo he quoted from that was obvious Roberts didn’t remember from 25 years ago and said he couldn’t extrapolate more than what was in the text and the Senator said “well I hope you don’t feel the same way, man”, or something to that effect. What an asshat.
I always hated politicians of his stripe. All teeth and grandstanding.
I think that while the Senators are really there to hear the sound of their own voices, Roberts is certainly NOT going to say ANYTHING definitive or specific. He is there to duck, evade and re-direct any queries that accidently occur.
It’s all a game–and he will get the nod.
<sigh> (for the way things work over the way things should work)
With respect to the OP, the speechifying in lieu of questioning is bipartisan:
Which was why the Dems would have liked to see Roberts’ work output from the Bush I administration, being more recent (and in a higher office) than his work during the Reagan years.
Do you really want to posit that if the Democrats had access to everything including what he penned in his daytimer while pinching a loaf on Friday last that we’d be in a different position? Fuck no. Biden and and the Great Windbag from Massachusetts would simply have another point on which to base their baseless pontifications.
While that may be the case, it still doesn’t excuse TK’s obvious (but failed) attempt of railroading Roberts yesterday. What little I saw today was slightly reassuring that Kennedy and Biden toned down the rhetoric maybe because they reviewed the day’s proceedings and probably muttered to themselves…“Damn, I was being quite the asshole yesterday!” :rolleyes:
Complaining even when I get MY way? I was undecided on which way it was…from what little I heard, he seems genuine and definitely knows his stuff when he has a chance to say it. Maybe that’s the real reason why they were trying to talk over him. FI, it wasn’t how long Ted took to set him up, it was all the other issues that he tried to pin on him when he served as the representative for the executive branch and the senator’s stupid attempt of characterizing him for past job performance.
If you were being interviewed for a job, would your interviewer treat you this way?
Oh, he’s Catholic?
b:Dd
<thumbs up approval>
So how do you account for the grandstanding of the Republican senators who use their time, not to ask questions, but to pontificate about anti-abortion windbaggery?
That’s an easy one. They’re ALL full of shit, on BOTH sides of the aisle
Wow. Just wow. You are so prolific in pointing out the political grandstanding of Republicans and stating your ire in any way you can when a conservative Doper doesn’t suck your sack in agreement. Then when the granddaddy of the Liberals comes under fire, you go back to how bad the conservatives are. Sad. Just sad. At least I can accept a differing viewpoint, no matter how wrong it is. 
This is becoming a habit for you based on a few recent threads. Face it, even most mainstream Dems can’t stand the guy. Kennedy is your baby, I guess. You live with it.
Ah, the shrill cries of the Red Crested Teddybashers! Its good to see you guys have some fun, get something you can sink your teeth into without getting bitch-slapped around by facts and cites. See, thing is, most of us lefties don’t really pay that much attention to the accidental Kennedy, he just doesn’t matter that much, we look upon him with a bemused mixture of vexation and nostalgia. So, what the hell…knock yerselves out, wouldn’t be Christian to try and stop you. Last year or so hasn’t been very good for you guys. And prospects are, well, dim.
Maybe we can hear from that Senator from Oklahoma, maybe solicit Judge Robert’s views on the dreadful threat of junior high lesbianism…
The only reason our recent past has been dim is because you guys couldn’t even drum up a candidate that could beat our guy a couple years ago.
What…some young girls on drugs experimenting with homosexual urges?
I mostly kid.
I watched yesterday’s hearings (or at least a few hours of them) on C-Span last night. Kennedy wasn’t anything to get worked up over. He was like a grand elder statesman compared to Leahy, Biden, & Schumer.
FWIW, you can stream this mornings hearings off C-Span 3.
Some NPR stations are broadcasting the live hearings instead of normal programming.
So is Kennedy.
Huh? What? Everything sucks, we are going down the toilet, but it isn’t the fault of the “ruling party”. It’s the fault of the “other guys” because they lost the election and aren’t in charge. That’s some great logic there, unless I have been whooshed. :dubious:
David Brooks column this morning takes a nice, humorous look at the hearings so far.
Now that’s funny.
I liked this bit -
Regards,
Shodan
That might may be so. But Roberts wasn’t working as Bush Sr.'s personal lawyer during that Administration; he was representing the United States of America - we, the freakin’ people. It’s doubtful that Roberts, in that capacity, was working on anything that needed to be kept classified due to national security considerations, but I’m certainly willing to let such documents, if any, remain protected.
But aside from that, there’s no reason on God’s green earth why we, the people, shouldn’t get to see what we paid for, all these years later. Just because a coupla Senators can’t bloviate their way out of a paper bag means nothing, one way or the other.
That people - or even the people’s elected representatives - might use their rights unwisely, isn’t an argument for the removal of those rights.