Congressional Hearings Should Be About Hearing Testimony and Not Hearing Congressmen Blather

Rep. Darrell Issa is changing the way his committee holds hearings, and it's not making talkative Democrats, who love hearing the sound of their own voices, happy (from the Daily Caller):

Issa cuts the crap, offends grandstanders -- "Rep. Darrell Issa’s first Oversight Committee hearing on bailouts and the foreclosure crisis started with a bout over procedure," reports ABC. "At the start of the hearing, chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced the committee members would waive their opening statements and instead would have seven days to place them into the record." Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who wants to make olives illegal, and Rep. Elijah Cummings immediately got their panties in a twist. “I’ve been in the Congress for 14 years, and I’ve never - it’s just unprecedented that the ranking member not be permitted to give an opening statement,” Kucinich said from atop a pile of phone books. But Issa made clear that the most important part of a testimonial hearing is the testimonies. "I recognize that tradition is we hold the members, the witnesses here for sometimes an hour through opening statements," Issa said. "That is a tradition that I intend to break.”

Kucinich doesn't get to pontificate! That's gotta just about kill him.

Go have a sandwich, Dennis, but watch out for the dastardly olive pits.