What JFK's man thinks of Joe Biden

Just before Barack Obama announced his pick for VP, I was reading this in Counselor, the memoirs of JFK's closest aide Ted Sorensen.

Late in the book there is a section that deals with Jimmy Carter's nomination of Sorensen as Director of the CIA. The nomination had to be withdrawn because Sorensen was unable to get Senate confirmation.

Both his release of some Kennedy papers and his support for the publication of the Pentagon Papers counted against him.

Sorensen was impressed with Senator Inouye, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But he didn't warm to all the committee members:

I never lost my admiration for Inouye.

On the other hand, the prize for political hypocrisy in a town noted for political hypocrisy went to Joe Biden. On my first courtesy call to his office, he could not have been more enthusiastic, supportive, and gracious, calling me "the best appointment Carter has made!"

At the opening of the hearing, he changed both his tune and his tone, stating: "Quite honestly, I'm not sure whether or not Mr Sorenson could be indicted or convicted under the espionage statutes.......whether Mr Sorenson intentionally took advantage of ambiguities in the law or carelessly ignored the law."

After listening to my statement of defense and withdrawal, he said: "Ted, you are one of the classiest men I have ever run across in my whole life."

Comments

[The3rdColumn]

But why are you surprised -- all of them are! I'm sure so is Sarah Palin!

[Susan R]

You might check into Clarence Thomas's recollections of Sen. Biden as well.
Seems to be the Senator's modus operandi: to charm and assure, then to ambush and accuse.

[Herschel Smith]

There you go. There's good old windbag Joe for you. He makes a good sound for a few seconds, convinces some dolts that he knows what he's talking about, and only when he is allowed to talk for minutes at a time does he begin to show just how nonsensical his thoughts are. Here we see not just nonsensical his positions are (I like him, no I don't, I like him, no I don't ...), but also how willingly duplicitous he is.

[JJM]

Biden did something similar to Clarence Thomas.

[Ian Thorpe]

Par for the course from the Obama campaign. Not up to the standard of Goat Boy, the fairytale of BO's father, but Biden is only VP nominee after all.

[Mike Roth]

Justice Clarence Thomas relates a similar experiance with Joe Biden. He relates that on his initial visit, he got the same enthusiastic welcome, and was told not to worry about the hearings, that He (Bidon)would just be throwing softball questions at Clarence Thomas. His very first question was for Thomas to comment on and defend an obscure quote allegedly made by Clarence Thomas in a speech a number of years before. After researching the speech it was apparent that the quote was taken completely out of context.

[Catherine Brooks]

Sounds a lot like the way Biden treated Clarence Thomas, praising him privately before the hearing with the Judicial Committee and then attacking in it. Thomas's book, "My Grandfather's Son," speaks of the lyrics of a song he liked about the hypocrites who "pretend to be your friend." Thomas writes, "Now I knew I'd met one of them. Senator Biden's smooth, insincere promises that he'd treat me fairly were nothing but talk. Instead of relaxing, i'd have to keep my guard up."
:

[Bryan Schmidt]

Biden is a snake, although he is able to tell the truth on some occasions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV14xqelWxY

[Mike]

My impression of Joe Biden comes from having listened to him at length during Senate hearings broadcast on NPR. The man is an utter gasbag, even by the standards of the Senate, which is full of people who love to hear themselves talk. Rarely have I heard a person take so long and use so many words to say so little. If he's elected veep, the only consolation will be that we'll be unlikely to hear from him again, unless NPR starts broadcasting the funerals of foreign dignitaries.

[dj]

The reason that there appear to be no comments is the fact that this is what most of us expect from the dems. If there is any honor in that party I have failed to see it in my long life time. Exception may have been President Truman- today of course he would not be a dimocrit.

[FJ Harris]

Joe Biden is a wretched creature.
He has always struck me as one of those humans God placed on earth as examples of what one should work hard to avoid becomming.

[Nancy Gee]

If Biden was against Sorenson because Sorenson thought the Pentagon Papers should be leaked, isn't that a Good Thing?

[Carol in Oregon]

I have never been able to watch Sen. Biden for more than 17 seconds without feeling sullied, so it's nice to know I'm in such good company. The fact that Sen. Obama's campaign seems to be bringing out the worst aspects of his disciples makes me wonder how deeply into the sludge Sen. Biden might crawl, mouth wide open, between now and November.
Whew. Did I say that? Is this peace-loving woman getting more bitter and nastier as this campaign wears on? You betcha I am.

[Michael Kennedy]

He may meet his match when he and Sarah face off. It will be fun to watch.

[HPG]

Joe Biden is the scum that pond scum scrapes off it's shoe before it goes home. He's been called 'the scrapy kid from Scranton' erroneously for a long time. He's really 'the Scrape off kid from Scranton'.
Since we've decided that VP nominee families are the topic du jour, let's talk about HIS family. Any proof his lobbyist son IS his son? How about a paternity DNA test, just to make sure. Then let's look a bit more at how Joe Jr. makes his living, lobbying for credit card companies and banks...with his Dad.
Sauce for the goose = sauce for the rather dimwitted gander.

[bigapplegeorgiapeach]

Welcome to politics, folks! Time to wake up and smell the coffee. They do what they have to do to get what they want. If you think any of them are any different, you're living in a fool's paradise. I say better Biden than Palin, any day!!

[Chuckles]

Clarence Thomas? You mean the whitest man on Earth? Tell you what, you show me anything he has done to earn his spot on the court and I'll show you 100 things he hasn't. I can't stand Scalia, but at least the guy states what he stands for. The hypocrisy of a black man denouncing racial quotas, when he is THE product of such a system, is utterly astonishing. Clarence Thomas, prime example of what happens when you make a quick, politically expedient pick. Calling Sarah Palin!

[joe]

But if something happens to Biden,,, then Obama will be President.

[bc]

The analogy between Truman and Palin is remarkable. Now that Joe Lieberman has praised her, McCain can extend that theme, and return the favor to the Dems, by noting what a great president Truman was, and for all the same reasons he likes Palin. The winning theme is "Talent and leadership exist in both parties, but here and now, the talent and leadership advantage is on the Republican side more than the Democrat side."

[Just Wondering]

Any middle-aged man who goes through the pain and expense of a hair transplant is both innately deceitful and extremely ego-centric. This would be an accurate description of Senator Joseph Biden as all his collegues unanamously agree.

If I am not mistaken he has also had his teeth capped and/or whitened. You might assume that a man who has been in the Senate for 36 years would exhibit a greater sense of self-confidence and self-worth. No, with respect to Sen. Biden, your assumtion would be incorrect.

Joe Biden obviously knows the real Joe Biden intimately and it's obvious he is not too happy with himself. If he himself is so lacking in self-confidence, and has major ego problems,why in the world would anyone else have trust or confidence in him?

This also calls into serious question Barak Obama's judgement for selecting Biden as his running mate... but that's another story for another time.

[JoeS]

Don't forget, Ted Sorenson was the foundation of the JFK presidency. JFK had nothing without him. That is who Joe Biden screwed.

Gosh, why doesn't this appear in the MSM??

[Thomas Rial]

Finding select quotes in a history piece, written with a purpose and not fully environed is bad commentary. Did it ever occur to you that from the time Biden had his first introduction to the hearing, the landscape changed. C'mon.

[Jim C.]

A lot of politicians are like that. Read Everett Koop's memoirs and how Ted Kennedy and the other liberals treated him during his nomination as Surgeon General.

[Uncle Ralph]

Mike's comment above brings to mind this assessment which might well fit Senator Biden:
"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met." -- Abraham Lincoln

[the watcher 2]

I am an independent voter. I must say that honor is severely lacking in the Republican party as well. Honor is more than serving in the military or surviving as a POW. How we stand by our families and spouses during the bad as well as good times is another instance of honor. Everyone in my family except my mother served in government, education or the military. She volunteered at centers for the elderly and the local hospital. All of these are honorable activities.

Honor is more than pro-life labels.
Honor is respecting all around you and accepting that you are not better than them, more right than them, or more deserving than them. We are Americans and need to act like it.

[Californio]

Yawn. Hard for me to get all atwitter about Biden, Mr. "For the working man" when in fact he is Sen. MBNA - gotta make sure them workers can charge all they want at 18-36% interest!! He is all "free-market" when it comes to shilling for his ursury charging overlords, now ain't he!!!

[Neil Murphy]

Dear DJ, having listened to the republicans for the last 10 years or so with their lies, deceits and hypocrisy selfishness and greed, I think your statements are very much pot calling kettle black. They will all lie to get into power and lie to stay there.

[Sandra Mendoza]

Yesterday, I read a column on Townhall.com on what Joe Biden did to a key Reagan nominee, Justice William Clark, who could have helped greatly in the fight against the Soviets. Biden was reassuring in private and then proceeded to ask him the names of the leaders of every African nation. And not a single question on the area of his expertise. It was excruciating and destroyed the career of a fine man.

I want to see Biden nailed for his role in the current harsh bankruptcy, and high interest credit card legislation and will gladly contribute to any 527 which goes after this snake on these issues. People have a right to know who is responsible for their pain.

I shudder to think of our allies reading of Biden's Janus-faced duplicity t. Who would trust us with this lying snake as Vice President?

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

This anecdote characterizes Joe Biden with perfect accuracy.

He has always been this way, and I cannot understand anyone's admiration of him.

But it is apparently a successful method, this weasel-like behavior.

It's been used by many others, and not just politicians.

It pretty well summarizes, for example, the approach of The New York Times on many matters.

The Times takes so many different positions in the course of a controversy, it seems reasonable to many different people, each of whom remembers only the position he or she is comfortable with.

Biden was quite disgusting during the special panel on Anita Hill's testimony that was broadcast during the Judge Thomas nomination to the Supreme court, perhaps the most undistinguished man ever nominated.

Biden is distasteful, but Palin is utterly unacceptable, Newt Gingrich with long hair. The Vice Presidency seems to draw these extreme types.

[Mike, Ohio]

Heh, somehow, reading that Palin is "utterly unacceptable, ...", from Toronto (I assume Ontario?) makes her that much more appealing.

[Simple, Direct, American]

Lots of vitriol here for the Democrats.

Two quick rebuttals:

1) It is statistically significant that the United States Economy and Stock Market do better under Democratic Presidents than Republican Presidents. Google it, it's true.

2) Bill Clinton left a legacy of budget surpluses (Ron Paul is More Ronald Reagan than McCain, Bush or Palin on any day of the week, election or no election). Since then... Washington has been controlled by Republicans for most of the last 8 years and in this 8 years we have seen:

A) $10b/month for a war in Iraq, a country that did not attack us, and one John McCain, George Bush, Robert Zoelick, etc. wanted to wage before 9/11 (google: letter of the new american century)

B) Hurricane Katrina, a complete embarrassment for any first world nation, let alone the richest one.

C) A bungled diplomatic relationship with Russia by a President of the Republican Party that said he saw into "Vladdy's soul."

The US government and anything it has touched has performed miserably over the past 8 years, if you take the reciprocal of Vladamir Putin's popularity rating in Russia, you get Bush's. And McCain has been in washington this whole time, voting 90% the same with the sitting President.

The Republicans need to be forced out to have a soul searching moment and let the Wall Street Republicans ("market fundamentalists" only, re Soros) take back their party from the religious fundamentalist right wing of the party.

This needs to happen. This will happen. The USA will be so much stronger because of it, if Americans, put their country first...

[Miss America]

With all due respect...Sen. Biden is a dope.

[Jonathan Sklan-Willis]

They're all just as bad as each other!

However if I were a US citizen I'd take McCain & Palin, because Palin is better than Obama & Biden and there's a good chance McCain will croak [hopefully] from the surprise of winning!

Obama doesn't know what he wants, he only knows how to make good speeches, so it is likely he'll adopt Biden's policies which means we get more old school.

Palin seems like she'll stand up for what she believes in and for what is right, and with McCain out of the way that's just what we need!

[Jeremy Stein]

I see that Gov. Palin doesn't believe that global warming is man-made.