Committee hearings are theater.
This is the other side of politics, the casual social functions that fill lawmakers' schedules outside their formal legislative meetings. All of it happens within a block or two of the state Capitol, but outside the public realm. A day in Lansing attending a full slate of fund-raisers and legislative receptions showed that these events are an integral part of the state government machine for both lawmakers and those trying to influence them. They appear to be purely social. They are not.