Thursday, January 12, 2006

If his mouth is the only thing in the way, we're really in trouble

Joe Biden, that is. Senator Joe Biden(musn't forget the title, he'll get the vapors). Was over at Instapundit and found this article with the title Loose Lips Sink..., subtitle Biden's Leadership Is Lost in All His Talk. Ok so far, it's about Biden huffing and blowing at the Alito("the humorless Supreme Court nominee") hearings. Read it through, and my first thought is that if Cohen thinks his mouth and not his record is the 'only' thing in the way of his becoming president...

"Biden occupies the sensible center of the Democratic Party", hmm? Evidence is his support of the AWB and his "centrist--and defensible-- position" on the war. Ok, the AWB was, by the admission of the people at the Violence Policy Center and other groups who pushed it, worthless as far as cutting crime; it mainly served to help demonize 'assault weapons' and get people use to the idea of a ban on types of firearms 'for the common good'. And Biden, as I recall, hasn't met a gun ban, restriction, tax or licensing scheme that he didn't vote for. And his 'centrist' position on the war has consisted of loudly criticizing and bitching and moaning, and not having the guts to actually vote to cut and run. Maybe these things are the 'sensible center' of the Democrat party now, but it doesn't fly real well with an awful lot of people.

And I've got to take note of this: "But even before that vote, Biden was urging President Bush to seek international support for the Iraq effort, not to move precipitously, and to have a postwar plan. Bush, listening to you-know-who, did what the voices told him." This is so much bullshit it's amazing. I guess wasting all that time at the U.N. asking them to actually, you know, enforce the U.N. measures doesn't count. And the 'postwar plan' crap; "He didn't know beforehand exactly what he'd do when, so he shouldn't have done anything". And we have the obligatory "Bush talks to God" knock("The President listens to voices, obviously he's insane"). Cohen is a jackass.

He does take note that part of Biden's problem is how long he's been in the Senate, and that he's come to think "...
that he and his colleagues are the center of the world." You think maybe? Cohen thinks the seniority his time there confers is one of his good points. I'd argue that it's one of his problems. We've got far too many people in the Senate and House both who think that having 'Senator' or 'Representative' as their job title means they're far above the common scum they rule. And far too many of them DO think they 'rule', or should.

Ending with this: "Biden ran for president once before -- and then, too, his mouth went off on its own. (In 1988, his stump speech was perilously similar to the one used by Neil Kinnock, Britain's Labor Party leader.) This time seems no different, except the loss is greater. Foreign policy, Biden's specialty, is the number one issue. He has much to say -- and then too much to add. He is an anatomical disaster. His Achilles' heel is his mouth." If I remember right, "perilously similar" meant he actually took whole sections for his own. And if foreign policy would suffer from Biden not being in the Oval Office, bring on the suffering.

No comments: