If you want to know everything – and I mean everything – that happened at today’s bank CEO hearing in the House, check out the Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal, which live-blogged the entire event.

You’ll notice that at 1:32 pm (seriously, they blogged everything), the CEOs were asked to raise their hands if their company still owns or leases a corporate jet.  At least twice today I saw this “raise your hand” tactic and it just irritated me.

Is there anything more infantilizing than asking a group of grown men (and women, if that had been the case) to raise their hands in response to a question? (See Fred Thompson agrees with me here.) What does this gain a Member of Congress, other than to make the CEOs look silly?

If a Member wants to ask a question, he or she ought to allow the respondents to answer fully. As we all know, sometimes context is key. But instead of seeking information, some members of the panel sought to score cheap points and advance a line of attack. What a waste of the CEOs’ time, the Members’ time, and the taxpayers’ time.

The other “hand raiser” I saw was Maxine Waters of California. She also laid the groundwork for my favorite moment of the day. In response to a rather convoluted question from Waters (at 11:31 am), Bank of America’s Ken Lewis responded in a bewildered tone, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’m sure he’s not the only one who felt that way.

On the whole, the hearing was well-run by Barney Frank, who understands both the political ramifications of the CEOs’ appearance and the underlying market pressures that operate on the chiefs’ ability to do their jobs. It’s a shame the rest of his panel isn’t quite as savvy.