[Hoot Gibson]

Watching politicians hold public hearings makes me sick. Most of them use up most of their time making speeches and cutting off the people who are testifying in mid sentence so that they can do more pontificating.

People in Congress need to be better questioners and much better listeners, or holding hearings is just a big waste of time and money. They need to approach hearings as a good lawyer approaches a deposition. You ask good questions and then listen to the answers. When the person being questions stops talking, you patiently wait awhile longer to let the pressure of silence encourage the witness to ramble. The only time that a witness should be interrupted is when they are themselves delivering a speech, trying to change the subject, etc.

Witnesses are coached to answer only the questions that are asked and to volunteer nothing else. But when politicians are interviewing politicians, not much good comes from the process.

The worst offenders are Democrats like Schumer and Durbin, but most Republicans (especially Graham and McCain) in Congress are also windbags when a camera is present and the clock is running. I am always amazed at how much Congressmen speak and how little time witnesses spend answering questions. I hope things will be different this time but there is no reason to be optimistic.

Issa is actually pretty good. If Republicans really wanted answers, then they would assign their time to people like Ted Cruz, who had stellar legal careers before running for public office. At the very least, they should swallow their pride and get some good coaching.