Rice hearings, round 1

First impressions:

Lugar started by saying there would be a 10-minute limit for each questioner in each round of questions, but he also said that he would be willing to stay as long as any senators still had questions that remained answered. The 10-minute limit just sucks, but if they didn't have it they'd be risking the possibility that Condi might race out of the room screaming.

I have no idea what Biden had to gain by prefacing his questions with the comment that he was going to vote for her anyway. It just removed all the bite from anything he had to say.

Feingold, Kerry, and Boxer were all excellent. Kerry's trip last week was clearly put to use today, and gave his questions an authority they otherwise might have lacked. He said his vote was yet to be determined, and that he hadn't liked Condi's answers to Biden's questions about troop numbers.

Condi's voice gets weird when she's lying - kind of shaky. And she lies. A lot. She also refuses to answer Kerry's questions directly, obfuscating and wasting time by throwing out extraneous irrelevant data - just like her appearance before the 9/11 Commission. She wastes time and hopes no one will get a chance to follow up.

She throws out a few poor me race-card comments. Pathetic.

Boxer really lights into her - on her CHARACTER. Whoa. She goes well over her time, (but Lugar does not step in to stop her, interestingly) laying out her lies and errors in judgement. When Lugar gives Condi a chance to rebut, she appears pretty well shaken up.

Shorter Boxer: You are a suckup and a liar.
Shorter Condi: I am not a liar.

More later. If you get a chance to watch or listen, they are starting the second session at 2:30.