There was a certain theater of the absurd quality to the start of Judiciary Committee hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. Senators bloviate as the nominee is forced to listen in silence with an expression designed to convey neither agreement nor disagreement and certainly not boredom.

Surely it must be even more excruciating for the nominee than for those obsessive enough to watch it on TV. Even Alito's presumed "friends" on the Republican side, people like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, seemed more interested in advancing their own agendas than Judge Alito's nomination.