Watched Colbert's testimony on Capital Hill. I think his presence there revealed what a farce congressional hearings are. They call a bunch of people there, spend most of their time talking. Colbert said maybe six or seven sentences, to questions which are mostly shoe-horning and grand-standing.
The point is that we hold "Hearings" where Congressmen don't hear. And this is actually easily fixable. If we had non-partisan chair-people (non-voting, paid by the federal government, civil servants) and restrictions on the sort of questions that you have over lawyers in a courtroom, congresspeople would be required to actually ask real questions, and they'd be forced to actually listen to real answers.
Colbert's only purpose there was to get people to tune in; Congress knew that, he knew that, and it's clear to us. But for the actual witnesses, their opinions were no more listened to than Colbert's. No wonder Congresspeople are so irritable -- how can they live with such a consistent, thorough wasting of their time?
