You Can't Start the Hearing Until You Throw Out The First Protester

Just like a major league baseball game, there's a certain ceremony that goes with any significant hearing in Congress, including throwing out the first protester (from Politico):

We just had our first protester thrown out of the House Armed Services/Foreign Affairs committee hearings on Iraq.

A woman from the Code Pink delegation -- there are at least a dozen -- started yelling, "War criminals, war criminals!" when Petraeus and Crocker appeared. The U.S.Capitol Police quickly threw her out, and Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), who is chairman the hearing, warned that no further outbursts would be tolerated.

Play ball!

UPDATE: After thinking about this a bit and reading that something like seven different protesters have been tossed from the hearings and Mamma Moonbat was arrested just outside, why was it necessary to allow the public in at all? Yes, it's technically a public hearing, but it was also televised, meaning that anyone who wanted to hear what the General and the Ambassador had to say could simply tune in to CSPAN. There was no need to admit people into the hearing room whose only ambition in life is to disrupt hearings and get on TV.

If the Senate was smart, they'd keep the public out and just refer them to the TV monitors.

UPDATE 9/11: Nope, the Senate isn't smart either and another protester disrupts the Senate hearing. What dopes.