Reply #39: That was after the election [View All]

[karynnj]

I hated the story because it was self serving and like most of Biden's stories large on details a good editor would remove and short on specifics and given when it was pretty unkind.

What bothered me more was that on one of the talk shows BEFORE the election, when asked to explain why Kerry voted for and then against the $87 billion, Biden - in his role as Kerry surrogate (not) - answered it was a mistake and he (Biden) voted yes to both bills. He didn't explain the difference in the 2 bills and that Kerry wanted to pay for it by withholding some of the top 1%'s tax cuts and he wanted Senate oversight on the spending due to problems with earlier expenditures. His ego kept him from doing his job.

If he were running himself this wouldn't be a problem and may reflect that most Senators see themselves as Presidents. It may have been that he was giving his opinion as a Senator and felt he should not defend Kerry on issues they disagreed on.

I really have mixed opinions on him. Sometimes he is fantastic - he is clear and explains things well. Other times he goes on and on with his long convoluted stories that drive me up the wall - especially when he repeats them. An example was the Rice hearings - he was making the point that you not only had to tell the truth, but the whole truth. He then said (I'm paraphrasing):

When I was young I went to Catholic school and this priest told us a story. This young boy, Johnny came to confession and confessed that he had found a chain and had taken it home, but then he lost it so he couldn't give it back. What he didn't say was that a gold watch was on the chain. < and the story went on>

The example wasn't really a good match to Rice - the Bush administration didn't just leave out inconvenient details, they flat out lied. So the story was not only a strange tangent but it didn't work. (Also - as there was someone who was once a nice young Catholic boy named Johnny sitting there, couldn't he pick another name?) Anyway, he told the same story VERBATIM in his speech on the Senate floor - even though in spite of saying Rice was a liar, he was saying he was voting for her.