Slow Walking

The Senate Intelligence Committee has updated its website for this week to show three closed meetings. This is very frustrating. The last public hearing was on March 30th. Like the House IC, they have a public number, but no one is answering today. It's going straight to voicemail, despite being during their operating hours.

That March 30th hearing was supposed to lay the groundwork to understanding the motives and methods of Russian interference in our elections. Additional open hearings were supposed to follow, presumably in a timely manner.

For a little historical perspective, the Iran-Contra Hearings ran for about 40 days, meeting nearly every day and calling 28 witnesses. The Watergate hearings ran for about six weeks, also almost every day.

In contrast, the House IC has held exactly one public hearing on this issue, on March 20th, six weeks ago. The Senate IC has held exactly one public hearing on March 30th, a little over a month ago.

I've heard a variety of excuses, such as "we only get one shot at some of these witnesses, so we need to be prepared." Cool, be prepared. Or while you prepare, call some of those witnesses that you don't only get one shot at. You don't only get one shot at Sally Yates. I'm sure she'd come back to testify multiple times.

The reality is, there is no good reason for the glacial pace of these Congressional investigations. It's crystal clear that the Republicans are stalling, trying to draw this out. To what end? Maybe they hope people will just get bored or fatigued with the issue. Maybe they think it will just go away. It's not going away and they need to man up and do their damn job.