The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Short Cuts

Upright: “Justice Scalia was obviously a mentor. … His philosophy is mine, too. You know, he was a very eloquent defender of originalism and that was also true of textualism which is the way that I approach statutes and the interpretations. … I want to be careful to say that if I am confirmed, you would not be getting Justice Scalia. You would be getting Justice Barrett.” —Amy Coney Barrett

Court-packing demo-goguery: “I’m not a fan of court-packing. But I’m not — I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. … [Confirming Amy Coney Barrett is] the court-packing the public should be focused on.” —Joe Biden

Biden’s memory: “I’m running as a proud Democrat for the Senate.” —Joe Biden, who at least remembered at what party he belongs to

Biden’s memory II: “You may remember, I got in trouble when we were running against the senator who was a Mormon, the governor, OK?” —Joe Biden, forgetting Mitt Romney’s name

Blame the voters? “54% of the American people believe they’re better off economically today than they were under our administration? Well, their memory is not very good, quite frankly.” —Joe Biden, who knows a thing or two about memory issues

Lockdown rejection: “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. … Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer. … [Short-term lockdowns are justified only] to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted. But by and large, we’d rather not do it.” —Dr. David Nabarro, the WHO’s special envoy on COVID-19

NBA business model: “China is not the only country with human rights violations. … They are a customer. They are a customer of ours. And guess what…? I’m okay with doing business with China.” —NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban

Baiter gonna bait: “If a Muslim woman was nominated to SCOTUS … you would see Republicans lose their mind about her religious background. … ‘Sharia law’ would be trending right now. Miss me with the pearl-clutching and all this righteous talk about religious freedom.” —Ilhan Omar

And last: “I wonder how many people think ‘court packing’ has something to do with suitcases and how many think it’s an obscure form of playing defense in the NBA.” —Jim Geraghty