Joe Biden: a tale of two Judiciary Committees

In the cozy confines of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe Biden -- erstwhile Democratic candidate for President -- spoke to John Roberts. Rather, he spoke to the cameras and Roberts, because for Biden, every second of C-Span face-time is worth serious campaign dough:

Judge, I need to know whether you will be a Justice who believes that the constitutional journey must continue to speak to these consequential decisions – or that we’ve gone far enough in protecting against government intrusion into the most personal decisions we make... this is your chance to explain what you meant by what you have said and what you have written.

Contrast this statement with Biden's remarks at the confirmation hearing of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

Judge, . . . you not only have a right to choose what you will answer and not answer, but in my view you should not answer a question of what your view will be on an issue that clearly is going to come before the Court in 50 different forms, probably.

Ginsburg was very much a liberal and had even served as the ACLU's general counsel for nearly a decade. But the GOP -- in the minority at the time -- gave Ginsburg the respect she deserved and she was confirmed by a vote of 96 to 3.

Of course, this is a different era. The Democratic party, now beholden to the the hard Left (or, the term they prefer, 'The Barking Moonbat Wing'), will do everything in their power to destroy any Supreme Court nominee -- no matter how qualified -- proposed by President Bush.

Fair? Of course not. But when your failed 2004 Presidential candidate was John Kerry (for goodness sakes) and an '08 frontrunner such as Biden has, on multiple occasions, been accused of plagiarism, well... you get what you pay for. And, in the current scheme of things, the Democratic party is sufficiently discombobulated that candidates like Biden are considered strong.