(CNN) If you know anything about the Senate -- and the men and women who populate it -- it's that they like to talk. To debate, to question, to soliloquize. After all, the Senate isn't known as the world's greatest deliberative body for nothing.

Which is what makes the announcement Tuesday night by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, all the more stunning. Grassley confirmed what had been rumored for days -- that Rachel Mitchell, a deputy county attorney in Maricopa (Arizona) County, was coming on as outside counsel and would handle the bulk of questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers.

"I promised Dr. Ford that I would do everything in my power to avoid a repeat of the 'circus' atmosphere in the hearing room that we saw the week of September 4," Grassley said in announcing Mitchell's hire. "I've taken this additional step to have questions asked by expert staff counsel to establish the most fair and respectful treatment of the witnesses possible."

So, the expectation is that Mitchell will handle the questioning of both Kavanaugh and Ford for all 11 Republicans on the Judiciary committee. (Any of the GOP senators on the panel could decide to do their own questioning; it's not clear that any will.) On the Democratic side, the 10 members of the panel will do their own questioning of the witnesses.

What could lead nearly a dozen Republican senators (including noted talkers like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee) to give up a privilege -- asking questions of witnesses in a VERY high profile setting -- they clearly cherish? Fear, mostly.

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