The above title shouldn't surprise anyone; it's hardly a news flash that a Republican member of Congress talks through both side of his mouth. But the most amazing thing is that they don't even seem to recognize their hypocrisy even when it is completely laid bare for all to observe on a nationwide broadcast and the blatantly hypocritical statements are not even separated by a breath.
Yesterday on the Sean Hannity radio program at approximately 5:00 p.m. EST, Mike DeWine appeared as a guest to talk about the potential Senate filibuster of Judge Samuel Alito and how that relates to the agreement established by the "Gang of 14". Hannity led the interview with his Republican talking points (as if he could come up with any type of cogent argument on his own) and made the claim that a filibuster of a judicial nominee is unprecedented (it isn't), unconstitutional (it isn't) and outrageous (it isn't). DeWine's response to Hannity's lead was amazing. It's below the fold.
I don't have a transcript of the program, so I'll have to paraphrase, but below is the gist of Mike DeWine's response to Hannity's talking point lead.
I will agree with 2/3 of what you said, Sean. [GTP note: he then goes on to agree with all of it.] What the Democrats did with the filibusters of judicial nominees was completely unprecedented, unconstitutional and outrageous. There were two basic reasons we chose to enter into the Group of 14 agreement and they were that we weren't sure we had the votes to implement the "Constitutional Option" [GTP note: Both DeWine and Hannity were careful to use this phrase rather than the more oft-used and accurate "Nuclear Option".] and if we didn't have the votes, it would have been a significant defeat for President Bush. Second, we realize that there could be a time when the Democrats control the Senate and we wanted to preserve our ability to use a filibuster to block a judicial nominee.
Unbelieveable. DeWine says that the use of a filibuster to block a judicial nominee is unconstitutional and outrageous, but the Republicans want to be able to do it in the future. How can anyone continue to hold the belief that Republicans have any principles other than political victory.