Joe Biden, Designated Loudmouth
Paul Gronke
My wife grew up in Delaware, and she's always had a soft spot for the junior senator from her fine state, Joe Biden.
Let me correct that description; of course, Joe isn't the junior senator, it's just that he was the junior senator for nearly 20 years, until the ageless Bill Roth retired. I think Biden was 50 before be got the status of "senior senator!"
We've always known that Biden is one of the sharper tools in the shed. But we've also known that Joe has a big mouth and doesn't know when to shut up. This got him in trouble in last year when he made a crack about Indian accents and Dunkin' Donuts. And his first presidential bid ended in a controversy over some remarks plagiarized from another speech.
Now Joe has gone and done it. He's told President Bush that he's peddling bullshit (which just happens to be the most important issue in this year's campaign). He's accused him of making the world less, not more safe. He even accuses him of inconsistency! (Full comments below)
Say it ain't so, Joe!
===
“This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement... He’s the guy who’s weakened us. He’s the guy that’s increased the
number of terrorists in the world. His policies have produced this
vulnerability the United States has. His intelligence community pointed
that out not me. The NIE has pointed that out and what are you talking
about, is he going to fire Condi Rice? Condi Rice has talked about the
need to sit down. So his first two appeasers are Rice and Gates. I hope
he comes home and does something.”
 |
More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
connect with blueoregon
May 15, '08
Forget Obama, I'm getting my ballot back and voting for Biden.
May 15, '08
Intemperate, maybe.
But what word did Biden utter that was not true?
3:01 p.m.
May 15, '08
This is why his presidential bids were always doomed, but why he's loved by the press and admired (privately) by Dems. Woulda been nice if he'd called BS on Bush during the run-up to the war in Iraq, but hey, I'll take it where I can get it.
On the larger question: how badly has this comment damaged McCain? By making it, Bush throws his arms around his hopeful replacement. Seems like that can only hurt.
3:02 p.m.
May 15, '08
I've never cared for Biden much and a significant part of this was his tendency to open his mouth before giving the words he was about to say much thought. However, on those occasions where the words are the right ones, he really nails them. When he's right, he's really right. Nice work Joe!
[of course he's still a shameless shill for all the credit card companies in Wilmington, but that's an unrelated issue]
3:19 p.m.
May 15, '08
What took him so long? He's been on TV literally hundreds of times over the past seven years, why didn't he say this one, two, three, four years ago? Why the hell did he vote for the Iraq AUMF against the majority of Democrats in Congress?
What's he going to do about it other than run his mouth?
May 15, '08
Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed those comments, too. Bush crossed a line that has been important in American politics forever (leaving partisan politics at the border). What do we expect, though, considering he doesn't appreciate diplomacy in any way, shape, or form. The best part is that McCain thinks that Obama won't be able to come up with a very good line for explaining his foreign policy. Of course, that line is: Americans want diplomacy.
May 15, '08
Give 'em hell, Joe! He makes a great surrogate!
May 15, '08
Joe Biden, designated loudmouth? More like Joe Biden, designated badass.
He called the President on his bullshit... literally. That is badass. That's something our side could use a little more of in "The World's Greatest Deliberative Body". You're right Jeff, it woulda been nice to have some of this fire five years ago, but hey, I'll take when I can get it. Go Joe!
4:45 p.m.
May 15, '08
Trevor, I love that! I tried to figure out how to change the title with a strikeout through 'loudmouth' and enter "badass" but can't.
May 15, '08
Joe's mouth has been getting him in trouble for a long time, but in this case, he was right on the money.
He's a smart guy, in politics for the right reasons, and he would be great as a cabinet member. Obama wants people who will speak up, and Joe fits the bill.
Wish we had more Dems in office like Biden who not only knows what cojones are, but has the sense to use them!
May 15, '08
Joe's mouth has been getting him in trouble for a long time, but in this case, he was right on the money.
He's a smart guy, in politics for the right reasons, and he would be great as a cabinet member. Obama wants people who will speak up, and Joe fits the bill.
Wish we had more Dems in office like Biden who not only knows what cojones are, but has the sense to use them!
May 15, '08
Joe's mouth has been getting him in trouble for a long time, but in this case, he was right on the money.
He's a smart guy, in politics for the right reasons, and he would be great as a cabinet member. Obama wants people who will speak up, and Joe fits the bill.
Wish we had more Dems in office like Biden who not only knows what cojones are, but has the sense to use them!
6:45 p.m.
May 15, '08
Prof Paul, you forgot the big winkie face. some people might actually think it bothers you that Biden spoke out loud the plain truth most of us have been saying in private (or perhaps not-so-private, but certainly without Biden's media coverage) for years.
unless you think it's not ok for some public figure to tell the war criminal in the White House he's dealing bullshit & malarkey?
say that ain't so. just imagine if one of the 23 who voted against invading Iraq (a list that does not include a certain junior Senator from NY...) had said "the President's so-called proof is nothing more than a pile of horseshit." maybe it's possible to be too polite, too nice, too deferential. maybe now and then some plain english, even of the cruder variety, is exactly what we need.
7:00 p.m.
May 15, '08
Y'know, we are right on the verge of being able to run a Democrat for the Senate who will tell the truth all the time (although the little guy is generally pretty good about not using profanity).
I'm just sayin'.
May 15, '08
I couldn't agree more. Jeff Merkley is really going to be a great addition to the Senate. I think he's pretty tall, though.
May 15, '08
Well I think this shows why Sen. Biden should be on the VP "short list", and ironically also shows why perhaps he won't get picked.
May 15, '08
Thanks for telling it like it is, Joe--and thanks for the posting, Paul.
Two small corrections though: Roth didn't retire--he lost his last re-election bid. And Biden was junior senator for almost 30 years, not 20.
Who wants to bet Cheney swears at Joe the next time they pass in the hall? Haven't seen ole Big Time for a while...
May 15, '08
Given the law of averages and his verbosity Biden has to occasionally assemble words in a sentence that makes sense. I dread the thought of Obama picking such a clown for VP.
May 15, '08
Senator Biden is an intelligent voice for the imperium, as he is for the corporations that make Delaware their home. When the People Who Count supported Shrub's invasion of Iraq, so did Joe Biden. Now that the wealthy elite have disowned the Shrubbery, Biden is free to point out what arrogant, anti-Constitutional failures they are.
11:55 p.m.
May 15, '08
Bingo, Tom.
Biden was part of the "everybody" as in "everybody knows" what none of them really knew to get us into aggression in Iraq, and part of shutting out of dissident opinion and contrary information. A big part, if memory serves.
1:24 a.m.
May 16, '08
For most of the last five years, Biden's position on the Iraq hasn't varied too much from McCain's. They both supported the invasion. They both have painted themselves as "critics" of Bush's execution of the war. Both of them have endorsed the idea of staying there until the job is "done." Neither has ever admitted their culpability in getting the whole thing rolling.
Biden's pushed his bone-headed partition plan without ever getting into the rather ugly example of the partition of India or explaining who was going to be patrolling the artificially-created borders between the Kurds, the Shiites, and the Sunnis.
May 16, '08
Biden was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms which kept him from the Senate for seven months. It is still leaking.
May 16, '08
The classic Bidenism for me occurred one Sunday morning some time ago when Biden was on a talk show. Things were going badly in Iraq and the American people were finally waking up to that fact. Biden said that the president needed to go on television and tell the American people what was going on. Biden wanted a man who lied to the American people to get this nation into a war and distorted the truth repeatedly after the war began, and Biden wanted him to level with the people. How dumb can a senator be?
May 16, '08
On WMD in Iraq:
"If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late."
Sen. Joseph Biden D-Del., September 4, 2002