As I’m watching the Q&A in the Alito confirmation hearings, I am struck by how bad most Senators are at asking questions in these kinds of proceedings. They just cannot get out of speechifying/campaign mode. As a result, they spend a lot of time explaining their own take on Alito’s writings, but they never really pin down the witness on the point they’re trying to establish.
These hearings would be so much better if, instead of the Senators themselves asking the questions, each side hired a special counsel who was an experienced trial attorney to do the questioning. The Senators do not appear to understand the basics of cross-examining a witness. The goal of cross-examination is to force the witness to answer the question that he really doesn’t want to answer. But the Senators don’t know how to do that. There are basic techniques to accomplish that goal that trial attorneys understand, and some of them are very good at it.
…to begin with. I guess Washington politics really does go to their head.
The Senators are talking primarily to (a) their fellow Senators, and (b) their constituents. They already, IMHO, have largely made up their minds about Alito. What the Democrats want to see is whether any of the hot potatoes they throw him, and his answers, get any traction among the press, punditocracy, and voters. What the Republicans want to see is the same thing, with the softballs they lob to him. (With all the tossing and lobbing it is no wonder baseball umpire analogies are so frequently invoked). The issue is not so much what Alito thinks about abortion or whatever — we know as much about that as we are likely to get — but how the country reacts when the issue is discussed. Skilled cross-examiners (did someone suggest water-boarding?) might pin the judge down with more specificity, but I am not sure the end result would be different. Still, it couldn’t hurt the cause of truth to try your suggestion, but it would definitely hurt the camera face-time for the respective Senators!