Senate windbags fail to land a blow on court nominee

You’ve got to love the way the Brits cut to the chase sometimes with a pithy turn of phrase that perfectly sums up the situation.

The above header from the Sunday Telegraph says it all, concerning the recently concluded Alito hearings…”Senate windbags” indeed! The Chief couldn’t have said it better! The article goes on with some more cogent points:

For the solemn line-up of big-hitting Democrat senators, last week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito were the chance to expose him as a radical conservative jurist intent on overturning abortion rights and siding with bosses against workers. Instead, they turned the sessions into a festival of long-winded bluster, from which President George W Bush’s nominee emerged unscathed and almost certain to be confirmed to the Supreme Court bench.

Hear, hear!

A breakdown of the hearing transcripts provides indisputable evidence, if the American public ever needed it, that their Senators are much more interested in hearing their own voices than in listening to answers.

What’s this, indisputable evidence? You bet! First they set the stage, remarking on Sen. Biden’s past performance as a speaker:

The worst offender was Joe Biden, a veteran Democrat who harbours presidential aspirations for 2008. Tellingly, he was forced to pull out of the 1988 race after admitting he had borrowed passages from the speeches of Neil Kinnock, the then Labour leader nicknamed “the Welsh windbag”.

Then, they give us priceless statistical evidence, in spite of the heartburn and indigestion no doubt stimulated by having to wade through the rhetorical mud of the Senate Donks:

In his allotted 30 minutes to quiz Judge Alito, Mr Biden asked just five questions and spoke 3,739 words, leaving the nominee time to respond with just 1,021. Next place in the verbosity stakes went to Chuck Schumer, who uttered 3,471 words to the nominee’s 1,166. Among a cluster of senators vying for third place was Ted Kennedy, who allowed the judge to speak 1,557 words to his own 3,282.

There you go folks! Statistical confirmation that the gut feeling of nausea that is obtained by watching the rhetorical follies on the hill is justified!