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Title: Biden: “Dick Morris is quick to point out every time I put my foot in my mouth, well, Dick, at least it’s my foot...”
Source:
Times Online UK
URL Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne ... nd_americas/article7067777.ece
Published: Mar 19, 2010
Author: Giles Whittell, Washington
Post Date: 2010-03-19 19:22:39 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1185
Comments: 3
There has not been much for the White House to laugh about in recent months, so Joe Biden has taken to providing the laughs himself.
This time, at least, the jokes were intentional: at a gala dinner hosted by America’s broadcast journalists this week, even his disastrous trip to the Middle East last week was a source of amusement, with the gaffe-prone Vice-President describing it as “a helluva nice break from healthcare”.
He then commiserated with his hosts for having to take second billing to the more prestigious annual White House correspondents’ dinner, saying: “Welcome to my world.”
Mr Biden proceeded to project slides on to the walls of the Washington Convention Centre, showing President Obama pointing to his shoes as the two of them enter the Oval Office — “the President’s explaining exactly how far down I have to bow” — and the Vice-President and Hillary Clinton exchanging words a respectful distance behind Mr Obama outside the West Wing — “it’s a simple proposition: people beaten in the primary walk four paces behind”.
Guest appearances at Washington press dinners by the two most powerful people in the country are traditionally self-deprecating, but there was a note of authenticity to Mr Biden’s remarks that may yet come to define his role as a far less powerful Vice-President than Dick Cheney, his predecessor.
He drew attention to his reputation for gaffes, and to the alleged foot fetish of a former advisor to Bill Clinton: “Dick Morris is quick to point out every time I put my foot in my mouth,” he said. “Well, Dick, at least it’s my foot.”
He begged wearily for laughs when his jokes fell flat, as they did on the subjects of Tiger Woods and Sarah Palin, and he did not offer examples of his tendency to embarrass himself by straying off script — possibly because the latest was so fresh in his mind. Hours before the dinner he had welcomed the Taoiseach to the White House. As a fellow Irish Catholic, on St Patrick’s Day, he had asked for God’s blessing for the dead mother of the Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, before breaking off with the words: “Wait — your mom’s still alive! It was your dad who passed!”
The first indication that Mr Biden may be approaching his job with less than total seriousness came at a summit last month at which he was picked up by a stray microphone saying: “It’s easy being Vice-President. You don’t have to do anything.”
Except, perhaps, to rein in prolix White House staff. In a useful primer on Administration jargon he noted that “senior White House official”, in a news report, generally meant Rahm Emmanuel, Chief of Staff; while “reconciliation”, the process by which Democrats hope to pass their health reforms, means “war”.
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and to the alleged foot fetish of a former advisor to Bill Clinton:
I thought the Toe Suckers fetish was a certainty.
#2. To: Skip Intro (#1)
I think the Times UK are being generous. They normally slant to "neocon" in their reporting anyway.
#3. To: Brian S (#0)
Biden demonstates weekly why he was known for decades as 'the dumbest man inn the Senate'.
my anti groupie can't get through life without me.
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