Biden Excerpts: I’m Fed Up With This Stuff About a Terrible System

Here are excerpts from comments made by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) during testimony Saturday by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas: I didn’t sign onto this job or run for it to be a judge. If I wanted to do that, I’d be a judge now in my home state. I don’t want to be a judge. I hate this job.

But all of my colleagues here who are telling everybody how awful the process is--let me be completely blunt about it, it’s like democracy; it’s a lousy form of government except no one’s figured out another way.

. . . So I take the heat and I’ll take the responsibility and I’ll continue to do it as long as I am chairman, no matter what these guys think of these process. OK?

. . . My job is not to defend you or to prosecute you; it’s to see to it you get a fair shot in a system that’s imperfect but it’s a good system. . . .

I’m getting fed up with this stuff about how terrible this system is. I hear everybody talk about how terrible the primary system is. We’re big boys. I knew when I ran for President everything was (fair) game. Anybody who runs for the Supreme Court or is appointed to the Supreme Court, to be precise, should understand.

This is not Boy Scouts, it’s not Cub Scouts. In the case of the President, it is for the right to be leader of the free world, and no one ever said it would be easy. And whoever goes on the Supreme Court is going to determine the fate of this country more than anybody. For the next 20 years we’re going to have people--scrupulous and unscrupulous--respond and react.

And this is not a referendum on whether or not--whether or not sexual harassment is a grave offense. I said from the beginning this is about whether or not sexual harassment occurred. . . . So, Judge, it’s no fun. But there are certain things in our society that have occurred that the nature of the offense is an offense that is--almost always takes place where there can be and will be no corroborating evidence, and all of us are susceptible to that errant charge. And if you don’t think that we’re going to see individuals up here charged, individuals in the Senate, individuals in the work place charged, maybe even not without merit charged. . . .

But I hope we stop this stuff. The press did nothing wrong. It is not their fault. It is the nature of what happens here when something goes public. This is not a right and wrong under--till it comes down to a decision about you. And the presumption is with you. With me, the presumption is with you, and in my opinion, it should be with you until all the evidence is in and people make a judgment. . . .

So, Judge, I don’t know exactly how you feel. But you’ve clearly demonstrated how you feel. And some of us, if not all of us here, have an inkling how you feel. . . .

Judge, I voted against you. It has nothing to do with this. I voted against you, and you and I disagree, like you said, on philosophy, as I can best understand it. Judge, go home, do whatever you’re going to do. Thank you for being here.