for "the national review" and sam stein, who is a political editor for "the huffington post." robert, how would you rate those performances? >> i think these are republicans asking tough questions at a congressional hearing. this is not a big story. these are congressional hearings, not a cocktail party. they should be tough questions. i don't understand the outrage about questions for someone who is going to be running the pentagon. >> sam? >> well, i slightly disagree with robert. >> i thought you might. >> you know, actually it's funny because some of these questions did produce interesting, illustrative answers. for instance, when ron johnson got hillary clinton to say what difference does it make? well, it does make a difference. the problem i found with the questions was they ended up stepping on the news. they became so demonstrative and so theatrical that they ended up stealing the spotlight from the answers. that did a disservice in some respects to the question. >> is the real story the feeder of the questions or hagel's fumbling performance?