Roberts Confirmation Hearing (Monday Post Recovered)

So I just back from sitting in on about 45 minutes of the opening day of the Roberts confirmation hearings. The Senate Judiciary Committee is actually pretty organized on this one; there were timed tickets, and the times given out were not that far off. The hearing room is amazing, as you will all see on television. The room is absolutely packed with the press. I was able to pick out Stuart Taylor, who was about ten feet from me, and Joan Crawford Greenberg, my personal favorite among journalists covering the Court. I was also sitting about six feet from Ralph Neas, of People for the American Way, so that tells you how bad the seats they gave the liberal public interest group representatives. Actually, my general public pass provided a little better view than his; he was behind a column, kind of like at old Tiger Stadium. (In fairness, I noticed that Jay Sekulow, of the conservative ACLJ, was in an equally bad seat on the other side of the chamber. So all the interest group folks got bad seats.)

I got to hear most of Senator Schumer's opening statement and the statements of Senators Cornyn, Durbin, Brownback, and Coburn. The strangest moment was when Coburn actually became emotional. He appeared to be, literally, close to tears when he spoke about political polarization and his desire for "one America." I saw a number of people in the room give a bit of a start at this curious display of emotion; it was really strange. Everyone else was just grand-standing, and Coburn almost got weepy. Just how stable is Coburn, anyway? I remember reading about him during the campaign, but I thought only his views were crazy. Maybe he's the whole package.

It was an interesting group of people waiting to get in. There were "Confirm Roberts," "Roberts Rules," and "[Blank] for Roberts" stickers (and a few buttons), and a lot of "No on Roberts" stickers, which kind of look like they see "Noon Roberts." (Again, the feckless left; even our stickers are weak.) There were a few protesters with signs, the most obvious one saying "IMPEACH ALL DEMOCRATS." (I guess he wants to impeach Democratic judges? Oh, wait, maybe he's just crazy. His hygiene suggested that.)  Plus, there was a woman dressed in colonial garb, carrying a Betsy Ross flag and copy of the Holy Bible. Really. No idea what that was about. Flag burning? (Or maybe she was just crazy, too.) I had a couple of interesting conversations with people in line. First, I talked for about fifteen minutes with three young women from the Feminist Majority, based out in Arlington. They were all in the early twenties and very concerned about Roberts and the direction of the Court. One of them commented that she wanted to get a look at the guy who was going to take away her rights. Then I had about a ten minute conversation from an older woman from Stockton, California, a retired schoolteacher. We didn't exactly talk politics, but her daughter works at Fox News in D.C., so I'm guessing she was rightwing. Very friendly, though. Then I talked to a junior at GW who is currently interning on the House side with a certain liberal member. I think he was more of a tourist at this hearing than anything else--kind of like me. He seemed more interested in international relations than the courts.

I had to leave before Roberts got to talk; indeed, I had to leave just about the time that Lugar was coming on to introduce the man of the hour. Maybe I'll find tomorrow to go for a bit of the question and answer.