After the savaging they gave Kavanagh, anyone willing to go through a confirmation hearing as a Republican would be a fool not to prepare themselves mentally and intellectually for the inevitable ordeal if they agree to accept a nomination to the SC.
Agree.
No doubt ACB was entirely prepared for an extensive examination of her credentials; however, she was not in a position to assume the Chair's duty to manage the hearing.
That duty to manage would have included immediately forcing and finishing such a Kavanaugh-like issue or, at a minimum, knocking the Dem game plan off schedule.
Failing in that duty, as I proposed last evening elsewhere on these pages the following response might have been entirely appropriate and within the realm of Barrett's role.
"I will answer your question, senator, in two parts. The first part, is no. The second part is, you most likely would not ask such an offensive question unless you had evidence of such action on my part, so if you do I suggest you have an obligation to this committee, to the nation as a whole, to my children sitting behind me, and to me, to disclose any such evidence, here, now."
The Chair should appreciate such a response.