We expect a certain amount of posturing and grandstanding at congressional hearings, but Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) went over the top during his recent exchange with CLIA President Christine Duffy.
As we reported in the news pages, Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, called an oversight hearing in the wake of the Costa Concordia disaster, purportedly to review the question, "Are current regulations sufficient to protect passengers and the environment?"
It didn't take long for Rockefeller to wander off topic and declare it "unthinkable" that some cruise lines operating in the U.S. pay little or no U.S. income tax.
Moving into Browbeating Mode, Rockefeller asked Duffy, "Do you think that's right? Do you think that's right?" Duffy, to her credit, offered the best possible answer: that the cruise lines pay taxes "based on the current laws." Rockefeller then shrugged, "There must be some law I'm not aware of."
It was pointed out to him during the hearing that the parent companies of the cruise industry's largest brands are incorporated in foreign countries and operate their ships under foreign flags.
These are facts of public record, and it strikes us as "unthinkable" that the chairman of the maritime industry's principal oversight committee could be, or profess to be, ignorant of them.
As Rockefeller noted at the outset of the hearing, ocean shipping operates under a "unique and complex" web of laws, but he's a legislator. Laws are his business. It serves no honorable purpose for him to browbeat the chief of a trade association whose members have nothing to hide and nothing to apologize for. They operate as the lawmakers allow. What business doesn't?
It is the right and duty of every citizen and elected official to ask, "Do you think that's right?" It's the kind of question that gave birth to this democracy. But in this case, this eminent member of this eminent deliberative body was barking up the wrong tree.