Attending a Hearing in My Fuchsia Suit Jacket

Over the past few weeks, I have been live-streaming many of the Senate confirmation hearings for the nominations for cabinet positions. In fact, most Senate committee staffers are running around saying, " 'Noms' all the time..." They look exhausted! It's fun to live-stream the hearings at my desk, because everyone else is doing that, too. When a Senator or a nominee says something outrageous, there's a ripple of "Oh my gosh!" that runs through the office, followed by almost as much processing as one could find at a social work faculty meeting. Almost.

(If you want to see such a recent exchange, click here, but I will not comment.)

Today, I attended a hearing in person. Now, I have never been described as a timid person. Let's face it, I'm a front-row-hand-in-the-air-let-me-speak-now kind of person. But, in the Senate, I have a tendency to hesitate. I've heard stories about fellows and staffers over-stepping their bounds and having the wrath of god fall on them. I'm good. I get enough wrath from the oboe teacher whenever I attempt to play the oboe. So, even though the hearing was right down the hallway from me, it took the urging and escorting of a kind-hearted staffer to get me into the hearing room for the session. 

It's a wild place to be. First of all, there is a tremendous line of people waiting to enter the room. The picture below was taken in the Senate office building where I work, but in all honesty, it is not a picture from today, although it just as easily could have been. 

The hearing room is actually very small and those in attendance are packed in tightly. It would appear that about half of those in attendance are from the media and, minus the nominee's family, who sits directly behind him/her, the rest are members of the public. In the picture below, I have tried to capture the set-up of the press, who sit at tables. 

Hearings are incredibly noisy and chaotic. I remember this from when I testified before the National Commission on the Elimination of Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. When the nominee and the senators arrive in the hearing room, the sound of camera shutters rapidly firing away and flash bulbs going off dominate the scene. In fact, the photo journalists swarm around the nominee so that s/he can barely move.

Some of my favorite moments today where when the photographers sat down in the center of the hearing room or walked kneeling - as if it was less disruptive that way. The funny thing is - I guess it was! 

Eventually, everyone becomes accustomed to the chaos. Photographers kneel in front of everyone. A reporter took a phone call twice in the middle of the hearing. Staffers lean in from behind the dias, pass notes to senators, whisper, and consult with each other. Staffers come and go from behind the dias. In fact, because senators have such a packed schedule, they, too come and go. Also, presumably, in a three-hour confirmation hearing, eventually someone will need a bathroom break, even if the nominee does not get one! I texted Neil a few times and he asked me, "Should you be texting?" Ha!

I will not comment on the substance of the hearing. I think that my politics are pretty clear to anyone who knows me. But, I can comment more on the process. The senators were especially concerned with process, as they should be. After all, I'm a person who loves process. Discussions and tensions primarily focus on whether senators from opposite parties are getting the same amount of time to ask questions, whether this is the same or different in hearings that were held under the Obama administration, and whether the nominee is answering or dodging the questions. I saw a lot of dodging today. Oh, look at that, I did make a politically-oriented comment!

Truth to tell, I only made it through two hours in the hearing room. My hunger and aching back as a cold started to invade my body took over and I went back to live-streaming like almost everyone else in my office. Of course, I started to look for pictures that would document the fact that I was there. I wasn't hard to miss in the pictures. My Washington-approved colors of black, gray, and navy are all at the cleaners and it turns out that this slightly Washington-hesitant person wasn't hard so miss at this hearing after all, now was she?