The conventional wisdom on the right today is that this is checkmate. For Biden to have said this can't possibly be explained away. He's presenting it as a disaster for the nation to nominate a new Supreme Court Justice during an election year, precisely because it's an election year, and with everything that goes on as a result of that.
Totally busted, right? Nowhere to go from here, right? Actually I think he has a way out. Watch and then we'll talk: (scroll down for video)
Biden keeps saying that Bush shouldn't make a nomination until "after the election" and that the Judiciary Committee should not hold hearings until "after the election." Now let's consider a couple of ways this is different from today: First, Bush was a one-term president running for re-election, so for all anyone knew at that point he could have been re-elected. It's as if Biden was saying, look champ, win the election first and then you can pick someone. By contrast, we know Obama is leaving, so for him to wait until after the election to make a nomination would mean he'd be doing so during his lame-duck period.
If Biden was arguing that Bush should make a nomination after the election win or lose, you can only imagine how it would have been treated for him to do that while a victorious Bill Clinton measuring the drapes for the White House.
Biden's argument is still 100 percent wrong, of course. The correct argument is the one the Republicans are making right now: Obama can nominate anyone he likes, and the Senate can reject anyone it doesn't like - which will almost certainly be anyone Obama nominates because that would shift the Court majority to the left and that would be bad for the country.
You should know by now that all process arguments are insincere, and Biden was as insincere in 1992 as he is now. But I can't pretend the scenario in 1992 was exactly the same as it is now - because it wasn't.
Sen. Joe Biden in 1992 says President Bush should "not name a nominee until after the November election..." #SCOTUShttps://t.co/setQGLzePt
The conventional wisdom on the right today is that this is checkmate. For Biden to have said this can't possibly be explained away. He's presenting it as a disaster for the nation to nominate a new Supreme Court Justice during an election year, precisely because it's an election year, and with everything that goes on as a result of that.
Totally busted, right? Nowhere to go from here, right? Actually I think he has a way out. Watch and then we'll talk: (scroll down for video)