“And this is the difference between that class of lawyers who are >skilled litigators< versus desk/paper jockeys. Contrast Gowdy with Darrell Issas’ amateurish “I’ll pretend I am a lawyer” questions which ALWAYS leave an obvious escape route to the the questionee/deponent. What is worse, his (Issas’) follow up questions ALWAYS generate YET ANOTHER escape route.”
Kinda makes wonder if he actually wants the truth. I have noticed it also and it is not lack of skill so much as he doesn’t want to pen anyone down, the truth might come out. Actually he and his staff have to know that their questions and follow ups are weak. If you and I can see it, they have to know.
That is indeterminable, as far as I am concerned. But I lean towards lack of skill as I have watched him (Issa) work several times....each time falling short. I can appreciate both views. But in Issa’s case, I believe it is ego-driven amateurism. Issa, if you read about him, has quite the blue-collar background. He’s enamored of himself and his position and office. In contrast and not even talking about litigation skill, Gowdy is rather self-effacing and even makes fun of himself at times and paints himself as a plain speaking country boy. But boy, he means business. It’s another piece of stark contrast between them.
Litigation questioning, as any good lawyer will tell you, is a fine art and is diametrically opposite to “winging it”. Issa wings it. I happen to know a bunch of lawyers and they all respect Gowdy, their comments are usually along the lines of “that was a skilled piece of lawyering” (referring to a YouTube’d questioning session that I linked them to. We, you and I, amateurs that we are, can see from the results of an Issa session, these holes that he leaves. This is a telltale sign of amateurism.
I’ve actually written Issa and urged him to take questioning lessons from Gowdy, or to have Gowdy prepare something of a question list...but for one, it is not a superficially-learned skill, and 2, Issa really isn’t that much of an intellectual. That’s not meant as an insult, I generally like the guy, but he is unaware that his ego is causing him to think he can pretend to be a lawyer. And in this case it’s potentially very damaging/destructive.