My Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds.

There's a great meme in the movie Tombstone, where Doc Holliday talks about hypocrisy.  He starts off, early, saying that he's no hypocrite, then later that his hypocrisy "will only go so far".  Later in the movie, on his deathbed, Wyatt finds him receiving the Last Rites.  The priest departs and he tells Wyatt, "My hypocrisy knows no bounds."  Let's watch, shall we?



Our dear friends in the Democratic Party find themselves in the same predicament over the death of Justice Scalia.  The president wants to make an appointment, but lots of folks are saying that he should not make an appointment during an election year.  That's sound political advise, except that the parties (and there's plenty of blame to go around) have said the exact opposite thing when the shoe was on the other foot.

The most recent and notable politico to be hoist on his own petard is our affable vice president, Joe Biden.  He had this to say about appointing a justice during a political campaign.

“should not, should not name a nominee until after the November election is completed. The Senate, too, Mr. President, must consider how it would respond to a Supreme Court vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year. 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 ever — until after the political campaign season is over.”

Evidently, he said that in 1992, during the ending months of the Bush 1 presidency.  If there was a vacancy on the bench, he wanted the incoming president to make the nomination.   Of course, now Uncle Joe is trying to clarify his earlier position.

Explaining his 1992 statement, @VP says it was about "a hypothetical vacancy on the Supreme Court."

So, it's all right to hypothesize  about what should happen if there's a Supreme Court vacancy, but in the actual event, all that speculation goes out the window?  There's a reason we plan for events, Joe.  There's a reason that we have a Congressional Record.

Update: If you’re keeping score, this means that the current president, current vice president, current Senate minority leader, and incoming Senate minority leader have all gone on record in the past in favor of obstructing a Supreme Court nominee.

You are a hypocrite, Joe.  Plain and simple.  You made yourself plain in 1992 and you've made yourself plain today.  Your hypocrisy knows no bounds.