Why he's the Instapundit

Glenn Reynolds sums up a roundup of reactions to the confirmation hearings:

There's no better way to make Senators look bad than to hand them a microphone and let them talk at length.

Hugh Hewitt noted something similar this afternoon, gleefully pointing out how senator after senator wasted his/her time asking questions and then objecting when Roberts tried to answer them.

It's fascinating to watch the dynamics of this. The Democrats keep trying to pry a statement out of him that will prove to the country that he intends to undo what they consider to be 50 years of progress. But having made that so clear, they're hoisted on their own petard, the advice Joe Biden gave to Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. So when he refuses to answer their pointed questions, the sympathy is with him, not them. Kennedy may rail; Schumer pontificate; Leahy huff and puff and Biden crack wise, but the futility of proceedings just seems to grow. Roberts is as good as confirmed. By beating their chests and harrumphing about their Constitutional role and the obligation of nominees to answer their questions, they've only made themselves look ridiculous and impotent. They can't even control their own impulses to talk endlessly about nothing, and in the presence of a man who has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than anyone living, that's a telling weakness. They should just skip the hearing and go straight to the filibuster.