I am currently going through an extended supervisor training at work and on Tuesday we had a session called “Behavior-Based Interviewing.” Prior to the interview HR has ostensibly screened the candidate for skill set, so that is not the purpose of the interview. We were taught how to ask open-ended questions designed to elicit lengthy, and potentially revealing, questions of the candidate. We were warned: “If you are doing more talking than the candidate, you’re doing it wrong.”
This morning’s L.A. Times Top of the Ticket blog: Sotomayor hearing word-count: Senators out-talk her two-to-one
As of Wednesday morning, the senators had spouted 50,082 words.
In response Judge Sotomayor had been able to utter barely 20,000 words (20,728, to be exact).
Monday was the worst day: Senators 23,175 Sotomayor 942.
Some “hearing.” Maybe they ought to call it a “talking.”
Posted by Elise on July 16, 2009 at 10:58 am
I thought the suggestion at Volokh that Senators ask a Supreme Court nominee about the meaning of various clauses in the Constitution is a great idea. (I assume liberals would focus somewhat differently than conservatives in doing so.) Not only would that be interesting, have some chance of telling us about the nominee, and provide a nice course on the Constitution, it would also be more of a “hearing” than a “talking” since questions would be brief, answers would be long, and dialogue would be probable.
Posted by bluelyon on July 16, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Great idea*, and it would be interesting to (a) hear the questions (as long as they weren’t preceded by a fifteen minute wind-up) and (b) hear the answers. I agree, I think it would make for fascinating viewing!
*which is why it won’t happen
Posted by mwb on July 16, 2009 at 11:49 am
Hey, it’s not like hearing is about her…
Posted by sister of ye on July 16, 2009 at 12:32 pm
If swollen ego were a fatal condition, we wouldn’t have more than a handful of people alive in the Senate. If that many.
Posted by Nunly on July 16, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I can’t even watch it on TV because the screen keeps steaming up from all the hot air coming from the bloviating Senators. This whole process is just a joke, it doesn’t resemble anything that the Constitution intended it to be. Nothing but partisan politics at its worse.