Who's on First?

In legal hearings, the proponent of a motion goes first. There are advantages to going first, but a key disadvantage is that your opponent can then respond to what you say. It's a bit odd then that the State Department's Cultural Heritage Center typically has the opponents of a MOU go first. As I recall, this pattern was only changed once when then CPAC Chair Jay Kislak indicated that despite the usual batting order, he wanted to hear from the proponents of the Italian MOU first.

We'll see what happens next Tuesday during the Greek MOU hearing, but such oddities add to the perception that the staff of the State Department's Cultural Heritage Center favors archaeologists who are the proponents of MOUs.