The Dim Bulbs of the Star Chamber

Jonah Goldberg writes that Senate hearings to approve conservative Supreme Court nominees have “a whiff of a show trial” to them:

Amid all the country club decorum, there’s a whiff of a show trial to these proceedings. The aim isn’t to illuminate; it’s to catch Alito saying something that will sound damning in an endlessly replayed sound bite. Hence the relentless campaign to get nominees to spill their guts on hot-button issues. When Justice John Roberts was in the hot seat, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., declared into every camera in the USA