I would rather be poked in the eye with a sharp stick than be called to “testify” in front of a Congressional hearing, particularly one chaired by Republicans who can’t be bothered to get their facts straight before browbeating me for five hours.

As the accompanying video shows, the Utah Republican put a chart on display, purporting to show that over the last decade, the number of prevention services provided by the health care group has steadily declined, while the number of abortions has steadily increased.

[snip]

When Richards said she’d never seen it before, (Representative Jason) Chaffetz replied: “It comes straight from your annual reports.”

Moments later, Richards shot back: “My lawyers just informed me that the source of this information is Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group. I would check your source.”

If you were Chaffetz, what would you do?

• Give the staffer who prepared that chart a raise
• Fire that staffer the moment the hearing ended
• Insist that Ms. Richards and her lawyers were mistaken, or
• go right ahead with no sign of embarrassment?

If you picked the last choice, class, you are correct!

They’re not only shameless, they’re stupid. They had weeks to prepare for this hearing and still fumbled it. Under the Republicans Congressional hearings have become a place to offer soundbites each member can use in fundraising. Hearings are certainly not for getting facts and reasons for actions from principals, not any more.