Yesterday's Senate testimony by former White House political director Sara Taylor was a watershed.

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No, Taylor's appearance was a watershed because of the extraordinary amount of liquid she consumed — three bottles of Deer Park spring water, not including the half bottle her lawyer quaffed.

"What is the White House trying to hide?" demanded the Judiciary Committee chairman, Pat Leahy (D-Vt.). Taylor grabbed her bottle, licked her lips and sipped.

"This is a difficult time for you," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said through his crocodile tears. Taylor took a big swig.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) accused the White House of putting "young, loyal, talented people like yourself in to the line of fire." Taylor savored a long draught.

When Leahy called a recess after a little more than 90 minutes, the former White House official rose to leave the chamber and said something quietly to her lawyer that sounded very much like, "I need to use the ladies' room."

Though Taylor was a fluid witness, her answers were not enough to quench the senators' thirst for answers about the White House's role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and related allegations of wrongdoing in the Justice Department.

Taylor had a brash presence that belied her tender years ("almost 33," she said), but her mannerisms betrayed youth: She flipped her hair back after some answers, fiddled endlessly with a paper clip and resorted regularly to verbal filler. "I'm trying to, you know, infer here," she said. And, "You know, again, and I will continue to try to be as cooperative as I can, and, I guess, you know, the only alternative is to just sit here."

Contemptuous of Congress or not, the witness's most obvious sentiment was her fondness for bottled water. She bounded into the hearing room and, ignoring the glass and coaster in front of her, unscrewed the Deer Park bottle, licked her lips and drank.