We have some folks who make you wonder how they got into Congress. And then occasionally you have some who really seem to know what they should be doing. 

I wrote earlier about that second category ā€” how deft Republican Rep. Brandon Gill (TX-26) is at dealing with witnesses and, as we found out on Tuesday, dealing with reporters as well. 

There's that; then there's the opposite of that. We call the opposite Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI). As sharp as Gill is, that's how clueless Hirono is a lot of the time. 

Case in point? Sen. Hirono's questioning of FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday. 

We wrote earlier about how Patel was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in an oversight hearing covering his leadership of the FBI and a variety of topics. Patel had to deal with a variety of obnoxious Democrats during the hearing, and he had a bit of a cage match exchange with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT). 

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But then came the Hirono questioning. Listen carefully as she asks when they can expect an answer to a request that they had made for information from him. 

Director Patel responded that he'd given them a full analysis and response already. 

Her reply: "When will you respond?" Um, Mazie? He just told you he already did. Are you not listening, or are you having trouble comprehending? 

"I already responded," Patel said again. "The letter is public." 

She still doesn't seem to understand. "Well, if you have a response, give it to me right now." He already did, Senator. 

At that point, Kash just cashiered her, "It's public; go look it up." 

Again, she appears not to understand what's going on: "I assume there is no response." 

"That's a lie," Patel responded. 

Or here's a thought? If Hirono wanted to know the status of their response because she knew she was going to ask about it, she should already have checked it and known they responded. But she apparently couldn't be bothered to do that basic work.  She literally wants things handed to her. 

Patel isn't her staffer. It isn't his job to make sure she does her job, checks her mail, and knows what's going on. 

The FBI also posted a graphic of the information on X, just to make it easy for her since she has difficulty finding things. 

Patel made her look silly. But to be fair, she contributed mightily to that all by herself. It doesn't take much, since "silly" seems to be her natural state. Even among Democrats, many of whom have issues, she manages to keep stepping into it.