1115.org

Four years ago, the guy who currently makes the office of Senate Minority Leader a subject of widespread ridicule, Mitch McConnell, was holding forth passionately against filibusters of “any President’s judicial nominees”:

Because of the unprecedented obstruction of our Democratic colleagues, the Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up-or-down vote. I know that some of our colleagues wish that restoration of this principle were not required. But it is a measured step that my friends on the other side of the aisle have unfortunately made necessary. For the first time in 214 years, they have changed the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ responsibilities to ‘advise and obstruct.’

McConnell has managed, of course, to find it in his heart to unembrace that position:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that he would not rule out employing a filibuster to block Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee despite having vehemently opposed the use of the parliamentary procedure over judicial appointments four years ago.

But see if you can make any sense at all of his justification for the 180-degree reversal:

When reminded that he threatened to resort to the “nuclear option” when Democrats were threatening to filibuster George W. Bush’s Court appointments, McConnell largely embraced his 180 degree turn in position.

“The Senate rejected my advice,” he reminded host Chris Wallace. “And the Senate is a place that frequently operates on precedent. So I think the Senate deliberately decided not to take a position one way or the other. And as you know we did have a cloture vote on Justice Alito …

He used to passionately believe in up-and-down votes, but the Senate didn’t buy into that, choosing to hold a cloture vote on Justice Alito, and so because the Senate frequently operates on precedent, that justifies McConnell abandoning the precedent of his own previous principles, and that’s because by choosing a cloture vote over an up-or-down vote, the Senate deliberately decided not to take a position one way or the other, so of course now he passionately believes that its okay for him to take the exact opposite of his previous principled position (which he still passionately believes in, presumably, because one day there might be a Republican president again).

If you don’t think that’s pretty impressive, try writing a short paragraph of pure undistilled garbage on any subject of your choice. You’ll quickly appreciate how difficult it is to turn out pure undistilled garbage of the first water.