Killing the Clock

Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, depositions in federal cases have a set limit of 7 hours of questioning. In one case I worked on, a wily plaintiff decided that she would kill the clock by taking excessive time to review documents, even one sentence documents, and by taking long pauses before answering questions. It worked; she effectively killed the clock and ate up our seven hours of questioning without us getting very much that was useful.

So we had to go to the Judge and ask for more time -- the Judge saw through what the plaintiff was doing and granted us an additional seven hours. This time we were prepared: we had her deposition videotaped, so that if she filibustered again, we would have a record to bring to the Judge if we needed more time. But we didn't need to -- the presence of the video camera did the trick, and she testified without her shenanigans, and we got some great admissions, ultimately winning the case by getting the Judge to grant summary judgment.

Unfortunately for the American people, the fact that President Bush was being videotaped last night did not prevent him from engaging in blatant filibustering and clock killing. Somewhere, Dean Smith (an Edwards supporter, incidentally) with his four corners offense is smiling. Look at Bush's response to this question by Ann Compton from ABC News:

COMPTON: Looking forward about keeping the United States safe, a group representing about several thousand F.B.I. agents today wrote to your administration begging you not to split up the law enforcement and the counterterrorism.

BUSH: Yeah.

COMPTON: Because they say it ties their hands. Yet you mentioned yesterday that you think, perhaps, the time has come for some real intelligence reforms. That can't happen without real leadership from the White House. Will you and how will you?

BUSH: Well, you're talking about one aspect of possible. I think you're referring to what they call the MI-5. And I heard a summary of that from Director Mueller, who feels strongly that we — and he'll testify to that effect, I guess, tomorrow. I shouldn't be prejudging his testimony. But my point was that I'm open for suggestions. I look forward to seeing what the 9/11 commission comes up with. I look forward to seeing what the Silverman-Robb commission comes up with. I'm confident Congress will have some suggestions.

What I'm saying is let the discussions begin. And I won't prejudge the conclusion. As the president, I will encourage and foster these kinds of discussions, because one of the jobs of the president is to leave behind a legacy that will enable other presidents to better deal with the threat that we face. We are in a long war. The war on terror is not going to end immediately.

This is a war against people who have no guilt in killing innocent people. That's what they're willing to do. They kill on a moment's notice because they're trying to shake our will. They're trying to create fear. They're trying to affect people's behaviors. And we're simply not going to let them do that.

And my fear of course is that this will go on for a while. And therefore, it's incumbent upon us to learn from lessons or mistakes and leave behind a better foundation for presidents to deal with the threats we face. This is the war that other presidents will be facing as we head into the 21st Century.

One of the interesting things people ask me, now that we're asking questions, is can you ever win the war on terror? Of course, you can. That's why it's important for us to spread freedom throughout the Middle East. Free societies are hopeful societies. A hopeful society is one more likely to be able to deal with the frustrations of those who are willing to commit suicide in order to represent a false ideology. A free society is a society in which somebody is more likely to be able to make a living. A free society is a society in which someone is more likely to be able to raise their child in a comfortable environment and see to it that that child gets an education.

That's why I'm pressing the Greater Middle East reform initiative, to work to spread freedom. And we will continue on that. So long as I'm the president, I will press for freedom. I believe so strongly in the power of freedom. You know why I do? Because I've seen freedom work right here in our own country. I also have this belief, strong belief that freedom is not this country's gift to the world. Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world.

And as the greatest power on the face of the earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom. We have an obligation to help feed the hungry. I think the American people find it interesting that we're providing food for the North Korea people who starve. We have an obligation to lead the fight on AIDS, on Africa. And we have an obligation to work toward a more free world. That's our obligation. That is what we have been called to do, as far as I'm concerned.

And my job as the president is to lead this nation into making the world a better place. And that's exactly what we're doing. Weeks such as we've had in Iraq make some doubt whether or not we're making progress. I understand that. It was a tough, tough period. But we are making progress. And my message today to those in Iraq is we'll stay the course. We'll complete the job. My message to our troops is we'll stay the course and complete the job, and you'll have what you need. And my message to the loved ones who are worried about their, their sons, daughters, husbands, wives is your loved one is performing a noble service for the cause of freedom and peace.

Let's see, last question. Hold on for a second. Those who yell will not be asked...

And Bush was successful -- he took only one more question after this rambling, incoherent mess. (Indeed, his performance led to this "headline" that was first thing to come up for a while today on Google under bush news conference: Bush News Conference: Was He Drunk?)

As I see it, there are two ways to look at an answer like this. The first, more charitable one is that Bush was just trying to kill the clock, filibustering. The second is that he is unable to string together sentences other than the set spin points fed to him by Rove, Hughes and Cheney. By the time he got to feeding the North Korean people I had to go back to realize that the question was about intelligence reform.

I hope Ralph Nader was watching last night....
- posted by Joshua @ 5:33 PM