Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday tried to clear his name and tout his record on Supreme Court nominations, calling Republican branding of his past remarks on the subject "frankly ridiculous" and casting himself as a longtime advocate of bipartisan compromise in filling seats on the high court.

In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Biden argued that Republicans have distorted a 1992 speech in which he seemed to endorse the notion of blocking any Supreme Court nominee put forward in the throes of the election season -- a version of the strategy now thwarting President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland.

Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at Georgetown University Law Center on March 24, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at Georgetown University Law Center on March 24, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Republicans have labeled the strategy the "Biden rule."

Biden, a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said his broader point in the lengthy Senate floor speech was to call for more consultation with the Senate in choosing a nominee, a practice he said would lead to nominees with less extreme views.  Obama "followed the path of moderation" with Garland, Biden said.

"There is no Biden rule. It doesn't exist," Biden told the group of professors and students. "There is only one rule I ever followed in the Judiciary Committee. That was the Constitution's clear rule of advice and consent."

Biden's defense focuses on a later section on the speech, in which he called on then-President George H.W. Bush and future presidents to work more closely with the Senate to name moderate nominees. Earlier in the speech, Biden warned that if Bush were to name a nominee immediately, weeks before the summer political conventions, "the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over."

The remarks have proven problematic for Biden, a veteran of decades of Supreme Court battles. After more than 15 years on the Judiciary Committee, eight as chairman, few in Washington can match Biden's experience with judicial nominations. Facing perhaps the last big political fight of his career, the vice president has appeared eager to dive into a familiar debate that has recurred throughout his career.

Biden, who has acted as a stealthy liaison to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in past negotiations, has begun some of that work. He has reached out to some Republican senators. And he's pressed the issue as he's campaigned for Democrats in Seattle and Ohio. His role is likely to increase as the process moves forward.

Republicans won't make it easy. Immediately after Biden's remarks Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement accusing Biden of hypocrisy.

"The vice president's weak attempt to walk back his own standard on opposing election-year Supreme Court nominees just can't be taken seriously," Priebus said.

Biden hoped to turn the focus on his record, rather than his rhetoric, from that earlier, less contentious era.

During his time on the committee, every nominee got a hearing and a floor vote, Biden said.  "Not much at the time. Not most of the time. Every, single, solitary time," he said.

Biden said he and Obama had studiously consulted with the Senate in picking Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of the Columbia, allowing the reality of divided government to shape the choice. He and Obama ultimately followed the "course of moderation," Biden said. Garland, 63, is not a liberal giant in the mold of former Justice William Brennan, and Biden acknowledged that the choice of Garland had angered some in his party's base.

"The president did not go out and find another Brennan. Merrick Garland, intellectually, is as capable as any justice, but he has a reputation for moderation. I think that's a responsibility of the administration in a divided government," Biden said. "Some of my liberal friends don't agree with me, but I do."

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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