I haven’t been following the Alito confirmation hearings very closely — I figure the outcome is pretty much inevitable unless Alito admits to drinking kitten smoothies or something — but I have caught bits and pieces of them in the car on my way to and from the train station. Frankly, I’m amazed — nay, disgusted — by the sheer pointlessness of them. What exactly is Congress accomplishing with this week-long exhalation of hot air? Judge Alito is obviously following the example set by every SCOTUS nominee since Bork, which is to say absolutely nothing at all that might tell us what he really thinks. Meanwhile, stymied by their inability to get the man to admit he enjoys a nice kitten smoothie every once in a while, Democrats preface each of the questions they know will go unanswered with interminable speeches (the contents of which I agree with in principle, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re really boring and, under the current circumstances, useless gestures). Republicans then overcompensate by falling all over themselves in displays of dewy-eyed fawning that would’ve embarassed even Monica Lewinsky during her beret-wearing days. (Utah’s own Orrin Hatch is particularly irksome in this department. I cringe every time he opens his mouth.) It’s all nothing more than an overly elaborate ritual that does no one any good.
Jan122006
