Congressional hearings have always sort of been a showboating of one kind or another, but I have to believe that if he thought that the answer to the question being asked was classified, he'd be well within the rules to "lie" in public about it.
This whole issue -- including Wojtek's poo-poo'ing about the public response to it -- seems to miss an important point. It's not that, as Wojtek would have us believe, we shouldn't be concerned about it at all; and it's also certainly not that every single thing that the government does needs to be open and transparent.
It's just about oversight and accountability. The whole point of checks-and-balances is that SOMEONE has to be watching. Whether it's a judicial panel for FISA wiretaps, or a Senate group watching the so-called drone "kill list" -- neither the Executive nor the Legislative should be able to act with impunity.
I don't believe that asking a 'gotcha' question in a public hearing counts for much.
/jordan