If his post from earlier this week is any indication, Biden will be pushing some factually challenged spin that was already deemed a “politically convenient fairy tale” by The Washington Post‘s fact checker.
The Vice President’s speech is sure to be an exercise in blatant hypocrisy, as then-Senator Biden once led the charge against considering any potential nomination made by a Republican:
It is my view that if the President goes the way of Presidents Fillmore and Johnson and presses an election-year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over.
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Instead, it would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. That is what is fair to the nominee and is central to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me, Mr. President, we will be in deep trouble as an institution.
As Biden attempts to unwind his own declarations on election year nominations, he won’t get much air support from Democrat Leader Harry Reid. Like Biden, Reid is singing a different tune now, but he noted in the past that the Senate held the right to do exactly what Republicans are doing now – waiting for the American people to speak:
- In May 2005, Harry Reid Said “Nothing In The Advice And Consent Clause Of The Constitution Mandates That A Nominee Receive A Majority Vote, Or Even A Vote Of Any Kind.” “Nothing in the advice and consent clause of the Constitution mandates that a nominee receive a majority vote, or even a vote of any kind. According to the Congressional Research Service, over 500 judicial nominees since 1945–18 percent of all judicial nominees–were never voted on by the full Senate. Most recently, over 60 of President Clinton’s judicial nominees were denied an up-or -down vote.” (Sen. Harry Reid, Congressional Record, 5/24/05, p. S5826)
Biden, Reid, and their fellow Democrats can grandstand all they want, but their goal is clear: they want to ram Barack Obama’s liberal nominee through the process in order to reshape the Supreme Court for a generation. And they want to do it without hearing from voters.