What college basketball can teach Democrats
Fans of college basketball remember how North Carolina’s Dean Smith changed the game in the 1970s and early ‘80s with his four-corners offense. The strategy was brilliant in its simplicity: Wear out the opponent, run down the clock and wait patiently for an opening to drive to the basket. It worked – yielding low scores and a national championship.
The upcoming testimony on Wednesday of former special counsel Robert Mueller marks an important turning point for the president, Congress and the country. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said “it’s important to follow the facts.” Well, the facts of Mueller’s report, if made clear to the American people, can only lead Congress to one place: acting on their constitutional responsibility to protect democratic institutions. Mueller’s public testimony is critical because recent reporting indicates that few Americans have read the report and, sadly, that includes members of Congress. (A new Common Cause website – willcongressact.org – will tell you whether your representatives have read the report.)
Once Mueller has illuminated the facts, it still will remain to be seen whether Pelosi is prepared to lead her Democrats where the facts take them; but the pressure is now on House Democrats to get the process right on Wednesday – to set a serious tone, to seek the truth and to open or close the debate.
Heading into Mueller’s testimony, Democrats should employ Dean Smith’s four-corners offense as they seek to paint a picture of “multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our elections” and at least 10 acts of obstruction of justice on the part of the president.
Unfortunately, if the process goes in the predictable manner of a traditional congressional hearing – five minutes per member (41 members), alternating between Democrats and Republicans, including prefatory speechmaking – it will give President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr the spectacle that they want. And we will be left more confused and less enlightened than we are today.
House Republicans will attack Mueller’s motives and credibility. In defense of the president, they will likely hurl a few oft-repeated, never-proved accusations: Mueller was motivated by a business dispute with the president; all the investigators were Democrats conspiring against the president; it’s all Barack Obama’s fault. “No collusion, no obstruction.” Democrats, despite best efforts at discipline, will be compelled to respond, and so it goes. That ritual will do nothing to advance Americans’ understanding of what happened.
It doesn’t have to play out that way. Back to Smith’s offense: Slow it down, use the clock, work the four corners of the report.
Democrats should reset the hearing rules and change the format. There is precedent for a change in process. During Watergate, Iran-contra and most recently the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, congressional committees have allowed professionals to question witnesses – to organize and consolidate questions, to allow the witness to complete his thoughts and to follow up in the immediacy of the witness’s response. This is what experienced litigators do.
Democrats should engage professional counsel so that Mueller can share his most significant conclusions. This would enable Americans to hear and process what happened during the 2016 election cycle and the months following. Republicans and Democrats could each control one hour and allot two 30-minute question periods, alternating sides. Should Republicans choose to use their hour by apportioning a series of attacks on Mueller among themselves, let them. That’s bad television.
It is not the time for a slam-dunk contest between Democrats and Republicans. There is too much at stake. Though it is asking a lot of committee members to leave the questioning to professionals, it would be the smart thing.
In the big game, you can take the 40-foot jumper and pray, or you can play a calculated strategy to use the clock for the win. It’s time for Democrats to channel Smith and play to win – play the four corners, drive to the basket and save the Constitution.
Edwards, a Washington Post contributing columnist, represented Maryland’s 4th District for five terms in Congress.