Al Franken has officially been a member of the Senate since July 8th. Eight whole days and nary a peep. Not knowing how assignments are made, I'll just accept the fact he has a seat on the Judiciary Committee currently conducting the Sotomayor hearings.I'm sure the Democrats helped him formulate the softball questions he would ask. These hearings are such a farce. Why they have to take up all day, everyday of CNN and MSNBC is beyond me. I thought that was the reason C-Span was created. No matter. What is, is.
I'm not much of a Franken fan. The last thing the Senate needs is another comedian, but no matter. What is, is. However, after three days of pontificating Senators and artfully dodging nominee, Franken at least brought a little comic relief.
Sotomayor has said the Perry Mason show inspired her to become a prosecutor. Franken asked her what the name of the one case Mason lost had been. She did not remember. "Didn't the White House prepare you?" he asked.
That last part was the funny part to me! That Franken also did not know didn't surprise me either. That the AP reporter checked it out did.
So here we have it. A new Senator reveals what we all really know anyway. The White House prepares the nominee for the questioning. She probably had all the Democrats questions in advance so there would be no slip up. The Republican questions get so lost in posturing they mean little in the pre-set scheme of things anyway.
The nominee has no quick recall of what might be considered trivia. That would explain a lot of evasions.
A reporter actually researched the answer for an unanswered question. Too bad it wasn't one of more importance. No matter. It's a step in the right direction!
The episode? "The Case of the Deadly Verdict." I wonder if that portends the end of the hearings and just how it will translate!
3 comments:
I am so irritated over these hearings I can hardly stand myself. What a waste of time! There's so much going on the Senate should be working on, and they're up there fiddling while Rome burns.
The reason Franken ran, though, is because he was good friends with Paul Wellstone, who had the tragic plane crash just before the election. Norm Coleman was a disgrace and needed to be replaced, so I guess the DFL Party in Minnesota figured that the best way to get him out was to have a high profile candidate like Franken.
There was talk that the reason Coleman did not concede the election earlier was because of marching orders from Rush Limbaugh, who hates Franken for that book he wrote in the 90s ("Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot").
I'm quite interested in politics these days, probably because I find most of them to be totally useless and think I can do a better job!!
CJ xx
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