Roberts is arguing that he is following the Ginsburg precedent by not giving answers that would compromise his ability to give an impartial hearing to the parties in a case. He notes that Ginsburg made an exception for matters on which she had written. Biden pounced, pointing out that neither the perception nor the reality of impartiality is challenged any more by confirmation exchanges than by published articles. Roberts didn’t have a good answer, and I’m not sure there is one (other than to say that Ginsburg should have said even less and thus did not live up to the best parts of the “Ginsburg standard”–in which case it’s not much of a standard). Roberts is going to be confirmed, but the Republican strategy of refusing to answer questions that might shed too much light on how a judge would rule does tend to make nominees look weaselly–like they’re trying to sneak something past the country.