Washington
In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Biden issued a broad warning that Republicans’ election-year blockade of President Obama’s nominee “can lead to a genuine Constitutional crisis” and he sought to distance himself from the strategy. He argued Republicans have distorted a 1992 speech in which he seemed to endorse the notion of blocking any Supreme Court nominee put forward in the throes of the election season.
Republicans have labeled their strategy the “Biden rule.”
Biden, a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said his broader point in the lengthy Senate floor speech was to call for more consultation with the Senate in choosing a nominee, a practice he said would lead to nominees with less extreme views. Obama “followed the path of moderation” in picking Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland, Biden said.
“There is no Biden rule. It doesn’t exist,” Biden told the group of professors and students. “There is only one rule I ever followed in the Judiciary Committee. That was the Constitution’s clear rule of advice and consent.”
Biden’s defense focuses on a later section on the speech, in which he called on then-President George H.W. Bush and future presidents to work more closely with the Senate to name moderate nominees. Earlier in the speech, Biden warned that if Bush were to name a nominee immediately, weeks before the summer political conventions, “the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over.”
The remarks have proven problematic for Biden, a veteran of decades of Supreme Court battles. After more than 15 years on the Judiciary Committee, eight as chairman, few in Washington can match Biden’s experience with judicial nominations. Facing perhaps the last big political fight of his career, the vice president has appeared eager to dive into a familiar debate that has recurred throughout his career.
Biden, who has acted as a stealthy liaison to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in past negotiations, has begun some of that work. He has reached out to some Republican senators. And he’s pressed the issue as he’s campaigned for Democrats in Seattle and Ohio. His role is likely to increase as the process moves forward.
Republicans won’t make it easy. Immediately after Biden’s remarks Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement accusing Biden of hypocrisy.
“The vice president’s weak attempt to walk back his own standard on opposing election-year Supreme Court nominees just can’t be taken seriously,” Priebus said.
For Republicans, Biden’s speech is part of an attempt to cast their no-hearing, no-vote campaign as part of a Senate tradition — their defense to Democrats’ charges that they’re shirking their Constitutional duty.
There is some division within the ranks on that front. This week, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said he thinks Garland should get a vote. Moran said he would likely vote against an Obama nominee, but “I would rather have you (constituents) complaining to me that I voted wrong on nominating somebody than saying I’m not doing my job,” Moran said, according to the Garden City Telegram.
Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, of Illinois, also has called for a Senate vote. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the Senate should follow “normal order” on Garland, including a hearing.