And does that mean we will not have to deal with political speeches from Bush and his co-conspirators either? The Address will be a model of non-partisanship??? Yeah... right...
ES,

The confirmation hearings are supposed to be to determine the suitability of the nominee in question, not a chance for senators to polish their political star. If someone wants to make a speech for/against a nominee there is plenty of opportunity to do so under the senate's parliamentary rules. The inaugural address has ALWAYS been a political grandstand for the incoming President, while political speeches in place of questions in nomination hearings are a relatively new development. Sen. Boxer was taking bits of memos out of context to grill Dr. Rice, rather than simply asking questions, and interrupted Dr. Rice when she was trying to rebut Sen. Boxer's statements. Sen. Boxer was merely using her position as a member of the Foreign Relations committee to grandstand, and most of what she said had nothing to do with questioning a nominee.