Free Republic

Vice President Joe Biden slammed Senate Republicans Thursday for citing the "Biden Rule" as reasoning for why they won't hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick. In a Thursday speech, Biden called Republicans "frankly ridiculous" for relying on comments he made in 1992 about the dangers of holding Supreme Court confirmation hearings in the midst of presidential elections. Biden said the so-called rule that supposedly prevents Supreme Court nominations in an election year "doesn't exist." He said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others in the GOP Senate leadership have quoted "selectively" from the...

WASHINGTON — As a senator more than two decades ago, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until the presidential election was over, and that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then. Mr. Biden’s words, though uttered long ago, are a direct contradiction to President Obama’s position in the battle over naming a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia. Mr. Obama has said it is his constitutional responsibility to name a successor to Justice Scalia, who died Feb....

When President Obama first nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans were united in their wall of opposition — no meetings, no hearing, no vote. And while Garland’s path remains a very uphill battle, some Republicans are starting to shift their tone. Two weeks into the nomination fight, 16 Republican senators now say they will meet with Garland — over 25 percent of the GOP caucus — according to a running count by NBC News. That includes senators up for re-election in Blue States, such as New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte and Illinois’ Mark Kirk, who will be the...

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday tried to clear his name and tout his record on Supreme Court nominations, calling Republican branding of his past remarks on the subject “ridiculous” and casting himself as a longtime advocate of bipartisan compromise in filling seats on the high court. In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Biden issued a broad warning that Republicans’ election-year blockade of President Barack Obama’s nominee “can lead to a genuine Constitutional crisis” and sought to distance himself from the strategy. He argued Republicans have distorted a 1992 speech in which he seemed to endorse the notion of...

In 2005, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) spoke on the Senate floor and insisted he and his colleagues had no constitutional duty to approve President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominee. Fast forward to 2016, he’s changing his tune. In a Washington Post article, Reid writes, “The Senate’s constitutional duty to give a fair and timely hearing and a floor vote to the president’s Supreme Court nominees has remained inviolable.” “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd felt compelled to point out the senator's hypocrisy on Sunday:Meet The Press confronts Harry Reid with past hypocritical postures on Supreme Court nominations “I guess I’m confused....