Face the Nation
This past Sunday, Senator Biden appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation, where he discussed both the situation in Iraq and the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. Most interesting was this exchange, where Senator Biden pointed out the hypocrisy of some who “suddenly” feel Americans have a right to know the judicial philosophy of a Supreme Court nomination before he or she is confirmed.
SCHIEFFER: Let me shift the subject here to what’s going up on-on at the Capitol. Senator Biden, you, of course, are a member of the Judiciary Committee. We have this-what’s become a very controversial nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. What do you think is going to happen there? Do you think there’s a chance that the president may have to draw down that nomination?
Sen. BIDEN: Well, I don’t understand the Christian Coalition or-and/or Republican politics on this. I’m waiting to find out more about the woman. I know virtually nothing about her. The only thing that’s come clear is the hypocrisy of some insisting they need to know about where she stands on the major constitutional issues, yet with Roberts suggesting that we didn’t need to know that. They have a right to know. We all have a right to know where she stands on these basic issues. And I hope this puts to bed this notion that it’s not a legitimate thing for the United States Congress to find out where a nominee stands on the fundamental constitutional questions facing her.
SCHIEFFER: Well, let me ask you this. Do you think it was right for the president to stress that she is an evangelical Christian and that she went to a very evangelical kind of church in Dallas?
Sen. BIDEN: I call that groping. I mean, it sounds like a man who is going down and decides to try to throw something to his supporters. Look, it wasn’t appropriate with Roberts. It’s not appropriate with her. It’s not appropriate with any nominee in my view. There’s a lot of people that have private, personal religious views that, in fact, they swear that they will not let interfere with their reading of the Constitution. I hope to the Lord that’s where she is.
A full transcript can be found here (.pdf). A video clip is also available.
