Stunted (now with Crying Game Update)

With this week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings devolving into theatrics best suited for People magazine, Tim Grieve over at Salon's War Room (subscription, or waiting through web ad required) asks the question, "Is it time to give up on confirmation hearings?"

We've said it before and we'll say it again: We're not sure why they bother having these hearings anymore. They're fine as far as spectacles go, and they do tend to focus the nation's attention on a Supreme Court nomination in a way that floor speeches and blast e-mails from interest groups can't. But really, what was accomplished when John G. Roberts spent a few days charming senators in September? When Samuel Alito spent four days boring them this week?

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Nothing real can happen in these hearings -- the nominees are prepped too well for that -- so we all watch for the theatrics. Did Alito sweat? Did he lose his cool? Did the Democrats catch him in some kind of "gotcha" moment? It would all make perfect sense if we were looking to hire somebody to work as a professional witness. But what we've got here is an opening for a judge, a judge who will have a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court and therefore won't ever have to answer another question from anybody again. Who cares how he reacts to tough questioning, if he combs his hair right, if his kid is cute or if his wife breaks down in tears?

It may not make for good TV, but the fact is that senators can learn a lot more about a Supreme Court nominee by reading his judicial decisions and prior statements than they can by spending a week with him in a Senate hearing room. Going into the Alito hearing, Democrats plainly hoped that they could make the nominee come off as a scary extremist. But what matters isn't whether he comes off as an extremist. It's whether he is one. And if the senators couldn't figure that part out from Alito's writings, a lifetime worth of hearings isn't going to help them do so.

Grieve does go on to note that hearings for someone without much of a paper trail--i.e., Harriet Miers--would be a good thing, and that hearings could be selectively applied. I dunno about that. I think it's all or nothing. But I do believe that hearings could certainly be minimized--especially the commentary by bloviating Senators on both sides of the aisle. I didn't see it, but I've read that Biden did himself little good with his 20 minutes of oratory before asking his first question the other day. As Dahlia Lithwick over at Slate notes:

This proceeding is nothing more than Senate QVC. People of Pennsylvania: Order an Arlen Specter and you'll have softer, smoother skin. Order a Ted Kennedy and equal justice under the law can be yours in minutes! Hurry and order a Tom Coburn in the next 15 minutes, and we'll throw in a free stethoscope, Bible, and glow-in-the-dark ear thermometer.

This is no more a judicial confirmation hearing than O.J. Simpson's was a criminal trial.

But back to the theatrics of it all. Much has been made in the last 18 hours, starting with Drudge, that Justice Alito's wife, Martha-Ann Bomgardner, ran crying from the confirmation hearings. As one would expect, Drudge pinned it on the heartless Democrats who have been relentless in their attacks and the major media outlets have been following along with this meme. But it should be noted, that Bomgardner exited during questioning by a Republican Senator. Back to the War Room:

But Bomgardner's departure came during questioning from a Republican, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham asked Alito, facetiously, if he was a "closet bigot," then said that he was "sorry" that Alito and his family have "had to sit here and listen to" the Democrats' charges about CAP. Something in there -- plus a migraine, maybe -- seems to have set Bomgardner off. Partisans on the right say that it's the Democrats' fault. Partisans on the left say it's Graham's.

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NBC says that Bomgardner's teary exit may become "the seminal moment" in her husband's confirmation hearings, a hyperbolic conclusion that leaves us thinking about something they say at the beginning of each Supreme Court session: "God save the United States and this honorable court."

When I first saw this yesterday, and read from a few sources that it was during Graham's questioning that this occured, this whole thing started to smell like fish from the Pike Place Market wrapped up in yesterday's newspaper. And Kos pulls it together:

Bowers:

The story about Borkemada's wife crying during the hearings is getting a lot of ink today, which is yet another sign of just how well the established news media is doing its job. One thing the stories on the tears seem to miss is that she started crying during Lindsay Graham's questioning, and Lindsay Graham helped prepare Alito for the hearings. Hmmm... that seems a little fishy, doesn't it?

Update: A PR stunt? This seems to suggest so:

The always-alert Creative Response Concepts, a conservative public relations firm, sent this bulletin: "Former Alito clerk Gary Rubman witnessed Mrs. Alito leaving her husband's confirmation in tears and is available for interviews, along with other former Alito clerks who know her personally and are very upset about this development."

[UPDATE - 11:20 PST] I just watched the video of Mrs. Alito/Bomgardner from Crooks and Liars and decided to do a bit of quick transcription of it along with some screen captures of Justice Alito's wife breaking down to the sultry rhetoric of Senator Lindsey Graham:

I've got reams of quotes from people who have worked with you--African American judges... I've lost my quotes...
I don't know where they're at... [ed note - at this point, Ms. Bomgardner goes into full, shivery cry mode - is it because she knows that Graham is a dunderhead who loses paperwork?] ...but, glowing quotes about who you are, the way you've lived your life.
Law clerks, men and women, black and white. Your colleagues who say that Sam Alito, whether I agree with him or not, is a really good man.
And you know why I believe you when you say that you disavow those quotes?
Because the way you have lived your life, and the way you and your wife are raising your children. Let me tell you, this guilt by association is going to drive good men and women away from wanting to sit where you're sitting. And we're going to go through this ourselves as Congressmen and Senators.
People are going to take that fact that we got a campaign donation from somebody who's found out to be a little different than we thought they were.
And our political opponents are going to say, "Aha, gotcha!" And we're gonna say, wait a minute. I didn't know that. I didn't take the money for that reason. You know what, I'm going to believe these Senators and Congressmen for the most part, cos that's the way we do our business. We meet people here everyday. We have photos taken with people and sometimes you wish you didn't have your photo taken. [ed note - nice attempt at insulating yourself from the Abramoff scandal, Mr. Graham]
But that doesn't mean that you're a bad person because of that association. Judge Alito, I am sorry that you've had to go through this. I am sorry that your family has had to sit here and listen to it.