IS THERE ANY EVIDENCE THEY'RE CAPABLE OF EMBARRASSMENT?:

Flawless Roberts holding Dems scoreless (Mark Steyn, 9/19/05, Jewish World Review)

Ever since prolonged attendance at "the world's greatest deliberative body" during the Clinton impeachment trial, my general line on the U.S. Senate has been to commend the example of New Zealand: They had a Senate, and they abolished it.

But, until that blessed day, I'd have been quite content for the John Roberts confirmation hearings to go on for another six months, couple of years, half a decade, until the last registered Democrat on the planet expired in embarrassment at the sheer maudlin drivel of it all. It was obvious on the first day about 20 minutes in — i.e., about halfway through Joe Biden's first question — that the Democrats had nothing on Roberts. But they're game guys and, like the fellow in a tight spot in a caper movie, they stuck their right hands in their pockets, pointed them through the material and pretended they had a real gun in there. By the second day, their pants had fallen down, but they bravely stood there waggling their fingers at the nominee and insisting they had enough firepower to blow his head off.

One wishes only that the GOP had enough sense to just stop asking questions of their own while Mr. Roberts was administering that ritual drubbing to the Committee's Democrats.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2005 6:42 AM