Never mind the whole Senate Republican conference not knowing whether it's coming or going on President Obama's eventual nomination to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and thus gatekeeper to the federal judiciary, Chuck Grassley, doesn't know what Chuck Grassley's position is.
It all started on Saturday, when Grassley told the Des Moines Register that he wasn't going to "make any prognostication on anything about the future because there’s so many balls in the air when those things are considered." Later on Saturday he issued that hardline statement saying that Scalia's successor should be chosen by the next president. Then on Tuesday, he seemingly walked that back, telling Radio Iowa that it was possible, depending on the eventual nominee, that he would hold hearings.
So, what is his position, reporters asked Thursday. He admitted that maybe he should have waited a couple of hours before making his initial comments on Saturday, and then went off the rails.
"But, I said, I thought, I gave him my opinion on Scalia, and then I said, 'I think we ought to wait to make some more decisions, you know?'" Grassley said, according to the Telegraph Herald. "And then nothing more was said until Monday. I gave a Radio Iowa interview, and I said we ought to take it a step at a time."
A reporter then reminded Grassley of his Saturday statement that called for the next president to choose the next Supreme Court justice.
"Then that statement ought to preempt anything that I said about a committee meeting, you know?" Grassley said. "Is it kind of common sense that if I said this whole thing ought to wait until the next election and let the people decide, doesn’t that preempt anything else?"
One would almost suspect that Grassley didn't know what his office was sending out as a statement on Saturday. Either that, or he forgot what he was supposed to be saying about waiting for the next president when in live interviews.
Yup, this is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The gatekeeper to the federal judiciary.