Informed Speculation

(With apologies to Harlan Ellison)…

We all know senators are in love with their own voices – but wow! Check out the stats at Ankle Biting Pundits, comparing the amount of time and words spoken by Senators at the Alito hearing with those of Alito himself. ‘Smokin’ Joe’ Biden comes in as follows:

“Rosary Joe” Biden 78-22% (DE) (3,673 – 1,013) (a 1,879 word, and 13 minute opening “question”)

That’s a whole lot of nothin’ going on!…

UPDATE 11:32 a.m.:More of ‘Talkin’ Joe’ from the NY Times:

The highest ratio of words per panelist to words per nominee was that of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, who managed to ask five questions in his 30-minute time allotment.

“I understand, Judge, I am the only one standing between you and lunch, so I’ll try to make this painless,” he began, with some promise.

Mr. Biden then dived into a soliloquy on Judge Alito’s failure to recuse himself from cases involving the Vanguard mutual fund company, which managed the judge’s investments. After 2 minutes 50 seconds – short for the senator – Mr. Biden did appear to veer toward a question, but abandoned it to cite Judge Alito’s membership in a conservative Princeton alumni group. Mr. Biden discoursed on that for a moment, then interrupted himself with an aside about his son who “ended up going to that other university, the University of Pennsylvania.”

Judge Alito, who had been sitting without expression through Mr. Biden’s musings, interrupted the senator midword, got out three sentences, then settled in for nearly 26 minutes more of Mr. Biden, with the senator doing most of the talking. With less than a minute to spare, Mr. Biden concluded, thanked Judge Alito for “being responsive,” then said to Mr. Specter that “I want to note that for maybe the first time in history, Biden is 40 seconds under his time.”

The audience laughed appreciatively.