Ethics

The Pointless Confirmation Hearings

By Ed Brayton

As the Sotomayor confirmation hearings got going Monday morning it only served as a reminder how utterly useless such proceedings have become. The most obvious skill that a nominee brings to such hearings is not the ability to lucidly explain their positions or skillfully parry with opposing senators over legal issues; the most obvious skill is the ability to stay awake as each senator reads monotonously from a script written by their staff.

What do those scripts say? Well, it depends on the party they belong to. In the current confirmation, the Democrats are all talking about Sotomayor's inspiring life story and her impressive achievements. The Republicans are all expressing their Grave and Very Serious Concerns about obscure rulings from Sotomayor that their staffers read about in briefing books provided to them by conservative interest groups.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).