Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee, recited portions of Mr. Biden’s speech in his own address from the Senate floor on Monday, calling the points that the vice president had laid out “Biden Rules” and saying his point had been: “It’s the principle that matters, not the person.”

“If the president of the United States insists on submitting a nominee under these circumstances, Senator Biden, my friend from Delaware, the man who sat at a desk across the aisle and at the back of this chamber for more than 35 years, knows what the Senate should do,” Mr. Grassley said. “And, I believe, in his heart of hearts, he understands why it must.”

Mr. Biden’s remarks were part of a long speech about revising the Supreme Court confirmation process after a tumultuous five-year period that had featured three bitterly contested nominees: William H. Rehnquist in 1986, who received the most “no” votes of any justice until that time; Robert H. Bork, who was rejected by the Senate in 1987; and Clarence Thomas, whose bruising hearings culminated in a vote in 1991 in which he drew even more opposition than Chief Justice Rehnquist had.

“In all likelihood,” Mr. Biden said at the time, “we stand at only the halfway point in the remaking of the Supreme Court, with as many confirmation controversies in the coming presidential term as we saw over the past two terms combined.”

Hours after archival C-Span video clips of the speech began circulating, Mr. Biden issued a statement saying that his remarks had been misinterpreted, and stressing that he believed, then and now, that the White House and Congress should “work together to overcome partisan differences” on Supreme Court nominations. He had a record of moving such candidates during his time as chairman of the judiciary panel, he said.

“Some critics say that one excerpt of my speech is evidence that I oppose filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year,” Mr. Biden said. “This is not an accurate description of my views on the subject.”

Officials at the White House and on Capitol Hill noted that Mr. Biden had also said in the 1992 speech that he would support a future Supreme Court nominee by Mr. Bush as long as the president consulted with the Senate or chose a moderate. Mr. Biden made that observation as he discussed how the confirmation process could be changed “in the next administration,” should he remain as chairman.