Man Of Constant Stupid: Biden Publicly Screws Up Again And Again

Jun 9, 2009 15 Comments ›› Erik Wong

Let’s start with the two most recent (under)developments from our beloved Vice President:

FOX News:

Avid train rider and Vice President Joe Biden, on a conference call Monday with reporters, mistakenly claimed that the planned Hudson River tunnel between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan would provide a much-anticipated route for automobiles.

Problem is, it’s for trains.

The $8.7 billion tunnel is among the largest new projects to be funded in the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus package.

“Look, this is designed, this totally new tunnel, is designed to provide for automobile traffic,” Biden said, according to The Record of Bergen County. “It’s something, as you know, up your way, that’s been in the works and people have been clamoring for for a long time.”

The Record, which asked Biden the tunnel-related question on the call, called the vice president out on the error. The north Jersey newspaper noted that the tunnel would accommodate more New Jersey Transit trains during peak hours — cars are not part of the equation.

The mistake is notable given the former Delaware senator’s well-documented affinity for trains and frequent Amtrak commutes between Washington and Wilmington during his Senate years. Biden also inadvertently irked public transit when he warned Americans in late April not to travel in “confined places” for fear of contracting swine flu.

POLITICO:

Vice President Joe Biden offered an exuberant endorsement of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor at a White House event Tuesday – but some legal analysts believe he went too far by suggesting she would rule in favor of police if confirmed.

Flanked by a dozen District of Columbia police officers, Biden said Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, could be counted on to support law enforcement while on the high court.

“As you do your job, know that Judge Sotomayor has your back as well. And throughout this nominating process, I know you’ll have her back,” Biden said.

“I think what Biden said was foolish,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who is a prominent legal ethicist. “She’s not there to ‘have their back.’ She’s there to interpret the law as she sees fit. . .

“It’ll be embarrassing to her when she learns of it,” Gillers said. “Biden crosses the line when he starts representing to interest groups that she would be voting in their favor.”

Sotomayor was not present at the event, which took place at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex.

The president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, John Wesley Hall, complained that Biden’s comment made it sound like she would overlook police misconduct.

“To say that a judge ‘has your back’ is an activist judge,” Hall said. “They’re raising doubts for everybody who’s concerned about the Bill of Rights. . . .‘She’s got your back’ is just the worst possible thing he could have said.”

But another legal ethics specialist, Steven Lubet of Northwestern, said he was not troubled by Biden’s remarks. “If Judge Sotomayor had said that, perhaps [it would be problematic], but the fact that her supporters think she’s more disposed toward law enforcement does not suggest bias. Everybody’s in favor of law enforcement, no one’s opposed to law enforcement,” Lubet said. “This lacks the sort of specificity that would suggest bias.”

White House officials, who asked not to be named, defended Biden’s remark.

“This is not a statement pre-judging any case she might hear. It is a statement about the record and experience she will bring to the Court,” one aide said. “What the VP said was entirely appropriate and not the least bit improper.”

Biden and other speakers at the event highlighted Sotomayor’s experience as a district attorney in New York before she was named to the federal bench. “She gets it…She gets what you do every single day, day in and day out. She gets that one drug dealer on a corner, one rapist in a park is one too many and can terrorize and devastate a neighborhood,” Biden said. “And she as a record to prove that she gets it.”

The vice president also took aim at Sotomayor’s critics “on the right,” particularly – although without saying his name – Rush Limbaugh.

“You know, if you listen to the talk shows on the right, they’d say this is a woman who’s out there making it harder for y’all to do your job,” Biden said. “Even though you wear blue, and she wore black, you both, law enforcement and her, spent your careers working for the same goals….I truly appreciate you having the moxie to stand up in the face of this stuff and say, ‘Look, this woman is the real deal.’”

With 80 people in the audience and the cameras rolling, the White House showcased endorsements for Sotomayor from the president of the National District Attorneys Association, Joseph Cassilly; Miami Police Chief John Timoney, who is also president of Police Executive Research Forum; and New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who was Sotomayor’s boss when she worked as a prosecutor.

White House officials said the audience included representatives from law enforcement organizations, law enforcement officers, law students, lawyers and professors.

Conservatives asserted that the gathering was a breach of the usual protocol for handling nominations.

“It’s something that’s certainly unprecedented in the annals of White House activity on Supreme Court nominations,” Wendy Long of the Judicial Confirmation Network said in a conference call with reporters. She called the event a “sideshow” aimed at “misleading” the public about Sotomayor’s judicial record.

However, President George W. Bush held White House events with law clerks to Justice Samuel Alito when his nomination was pending in 2005, and with Texas colleagues of Harriet Miers during her failed bid for the high court earlier that year.

In 1994, Vice President Al Gore held a briefing for journalists to discuss strategy for the nomination of Justice Stephen Breyer.

Back in 1987, when the nomination of Robert Bork ran into trouble, President Ronald Reagan plugged his nominee in at least two speeches to law enforcement groups. Reagan noted that Bork, as solicitor general, had argued for the death penalty and had a “clear understanding of the problem facing today’s law enforcement professions.” Reagan also called Bork’s nomination “a crucial opportunity to continue our progress in the war against crime.”

Hall said he was baffled by the Obama White House’s decision to stage a pro-law enforcement event on behalf of a nominee who is widely expected to be easily confirmed.

“It only takes 51 votes to get confirmed. They got that. I don’t know why they’re going to these extremes,” the defense attorney said. “I can foresee Democrats asking questions about what Biden said during the confirmation—and they should.”

And now, I would just love to embarrass this dope even more, so courtesy of FOX News: A Partial List Of Biden’s Idiocy At Work AKA “Bidenisms”

– On March 13, 2009, Biden addressed a former Senate colleague by saying, “An hour late, oh give me a f**king break,” after he arrived on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The vice president’s expletive was caught on a live microphone.

– During a Feb. 25, 2009, interview on CBS’ “Early Show,” Biden encouraged viewers to visit a government-run Web site that tracks stimulus spending. When asked for the site’s web address, Biden could not remember the site’s “number.”

“You know, I’m embarrassed. Do you know the Web site number?” he asked an aide standing out of view. “I should have it in front of me and I don’t. I’m actually embarrassed.”

– At a Jan. 30, 2009, swearing-in ceremony of senior White House staff, Biden mocked Chief Justice John Roberts for his presidential oath blunder on Inauguration Day.

“Am I doing this again?” Biden said, after Obama asked him to administer the oath. When Biden was told the swearing-in was for senior staff — and not cabinet members — the vice president quipped, “My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts,” prompting a stern nudge from Obama.

– On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 2009, Biden misspoke when he told a cheering crowd of supporters, “Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart.” Justice John Paul Stevens — not Stewart — swore Biden in as vice president.

– When criticizing former GOP nominee John McCain in Athens, Ohio, on Oct. 15, 2008, Biden said, “Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.”

– In a Sept. 22, 2008, CBS interview, Biden misspoke when he said Franklin D. Roosevelt was president when the stock market crashed in 1929.

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened,” he said. Herbert Hoover — not Roosevelt — was president in 1929, and television had not yet been invented in 1929.

– During a Sept. 12, 2008, speech in Columbia, Mo., Biden called for Missouri State Sen. Chuck Graham, who is wheelchair-bound, to “stand up.”

“Oh, God love ya,” Biden said, after realizing his mistake. “What am I talking about?”

– At a Sept. 10, 2008, town hall meeting in Nashua, N.H., Biden said, “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.”

– Biden mistakenly referred to Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the “lieutenant governor” of her state during a town hall meeting on Sept. 4, 2008 at George Mason University in Manassas, Va.

“I heard a very, by the way I mean this sincerely, a very strong and a very good political speech from a lieutenant governor of Alaska who I think is going to be very formidable, very formidable not only in the campaign but in the debate,” Biden said.

– Biden said he was running for president — not vice president — during a Sept. 1, 2008, roundtable discussion in Scranton, Pa.

“Today is the moment for me as a United States senator running for president to put aside the national politics and focus on what’s happening down there,” Biden said.

– Biden referred to John McCain as “George” during his vice presidential acceptance speech on Aug. 27, 2008, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Co. “Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip,” he explained.

– Biden confused army brigades with battalions when speaking about Obama’s plan for sending troops to Afghanistan.

“Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?”

– During his first campaign rally with Obama as his vice presidential running mate on Aug. 23, 2008, Biden introduced Obama by saying, “A man I’m proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States — Barack America!”

– On Jan. 31, 2007 — the day Biden announced his presidential bid — the Delaware Senator was roundly criticized for calling Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”