I clearly remember watching at the 11th hour when Gowdy went well past his allotted time period with questions, and someone on the panel dared to question him. His answer was something like "I will take as long as I please and if you don't like it, I'll go another round with questions from everyone just to punish you." It was such a petulant display, even in a day filled with GOP members fighting for Fox soundbites, that it stuck in my head. 

The only one in charge of the length of that hearing was Gowdy himself. And I believe he also wanted the hearings to be public until he was publicly humiliated with Hillary's complete smackdown of him and his henchmen.

If it had gone another way, and Hillary had become angry or had given them the smallest quote they could exploit and run with, the public hearing would have been the best idea they've had in years and they'd be breaking their arms trying to pat themselves on the back.

LOL @ Germany and Italy. Hey it's only taxpayer money, maybe they can take a tour of Disneyland and see if there's any clues there? Or Hawaii...they can also follow up on Trump's birther investigation while they're getting some sun....I mean, investigating.