Can it please be over?

Meaning, the endless theatrics over the confirmation of Peter Young as head of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

For the better part of a week now, members of the Senate Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs Committee have been grilling Young's record from his first four years as they consider him for a second term.

"Torching" might describe the process more accurately.

There have been hours of testimony, some of it quite rambling, by staffers and former staffers unhappy with the department's operations — complaints that reflect, in varying degrees, on Young.

Some of it focused more on subordinates than on Young himself, taking up a disproportionate amount of time that's tough to justify in the context of a confirmation hearing.

The taxpayers have to be wondering by now whether some important work is getting short shrift.

Then, to top it off, on Tuesday Gov. Linda Lingle asked for a chance to speak in defense of her nominee.

She was rebuffed. Too late, governor, the period for public testimony has closed.

Unbelievable.

If the committee is determined to give Young a thorough going-over, they could have done so with more grace and civility than we've witnessed here. Have those with grievances come to the point. Get the facts and make the decision.

Just because the law allows the Senate to act "large and in charge" doesn't mean that's the professional thing to do.