Yo, Joe Biden Is Still Relevant Here!
Vice President Joe Biden created a bit of an internet stir recently with an off-the-cuff (not to mention off-the-record) remark whispered to President Obama. The occasion was Obama signing the health care reform bill into law. As the ceremony progressed, Biden was overheard saying, “This is a big (expletive) deal.”
Many people reacted with shock, while many others merely shrugged their shoulders. After all, this could be nothing more than a case of you can take the boy out of the anthracite fields, but you can’t take the anthracite fields out of the boy. Or perhaps he got caught up in the historic moment of a Democratic administration actually succeeding in getting something past the GOP. Something this momentous hasn’t happened in...well, it hasn’t happened in this century until last week.
Or it could be a case of Biden trying to keep pace with his predecessor, Dick Cheney. Admittedly, Darth Dick did set the bar very high for the office of the Vice President. Not only did he come off as arrogant most of the time – his face was a perpetual scowl with an Elvis sneer - but he also had his moment or two with expletives. Cheney’s most celebrated incident with cussing happened on the floor of the House. Government decorum has not been the same since.
I don’t think Biden should necessarily emulate the Dickster, but the office of the Vice President has always been a high-wire act between relevancy and duty. The vice president is more than just someone hanging around in case the Commander-in-Chief becomes incapacitated. I’m sure more than one of them in our nation’s history was tempted to do something that would attract attention to themselves. You know, their way of raising their hands high and saying, “Yo, I’m still relevant here.”
They can be an effective liaison between the Executive and Legislative Branches like — yes, I’m serious here — Dan Quayle. Then there are others like Chester Alan Arthur who couldn’t even set one foot inside the door of the White House while President James Garfield was alive. Boy, did that situation backfire, no pun intended.
Dick Cheney was no ordinary vice president. I can appreciate Biden’s dilemma. I prefer to liken it to Shemp taking Curly’s place in The Three Stooges, which was a case of a very capable person having a difficult act to follow. It’s a huge, but not impossible, challenge.
So now that he has cussed in public, whatever can be next on the Vice President’s To Do List? Well, if he still wants to follow Cheney’s lead, he could take a lawyer on a hunting trip. Mind you, this just an idle suggestion. After all, it’s not like someone will miss a lawyer or two if they go hunting and...you know...don’t come back. Yes, this sounds terribly illegal and unethical, but that never stopped Cheney.
(Thank you for reading. Please remember this a big [expletive] deal!)
Many people reacted with shock, while many others merely shrugged their shoulders. After all, this could be nothing more than a case of you can take the boy out of the anthracite fields, but you can’t take the anthracite fields out of the boy. Or perhaps he got caught up in the historic moment of a Democratic administration actually succeeding in getting something past the GOP. Something this momentous hasn’t happened in...well, it hasn’t happened in this century until last week.
Or it could be a case of Biden trying to keep pace with his predecessor, Dick Cheney. Admittedly, Darth Dick did set the bar very high for the office of the Vice President. Not only did he come off as arrogant most of the time – his face was a perpetual scowl with an Elvis sneer - but he also had his moment or two with expletives. Cheney’s most celebrated incident with cussing happened on the floor of the House. Government decorum has not been the same since.
I don’t think Biden should necessarily emulate the Dickster, but the office of the Vice President has always been a high-wire act between relevancy and duty. The vice president is more than just someone hanging around in case the Commander-in-Chief becomes incapacitated. I’m sure more than one of them in our nation’s history was tempted to do something that would attract attention to themselves. You know, their way of raising their hands high and saying, “Yo, I’m still relevant here.”
They can be an effective liaison between the Executive and Legislative Branches like — yes, I’m serious here — Dan Quayle. Then there are others like Chester Alan Arthur who couldn’t even set one foot inside the door of the White House while President James Garfield was alive. Boy, did that situation backfire, no pun intended.
Dick Cheney was no ordinary vice president. I can appreciate Biden’s dilemma. I prefer to liken it to Shemp taking Curly’s place in The Three Stooges, which was a case of a very capable person having a difficult act to follow. It’s a huge, but not impossible, challenge.
So now that he has cussed in public, whatever can be next on the Vice President’s To Do List? Well, if he still wants to follow Cheney’s lead, he could take a lawyer on a hunting trip. Mind you, this just an idle suggestion. After all, it’s not like someone will miss a lawyer or two if they go hunting and...you know...don’t come back. Yes, this sounds terribly illegal and unethical, but that never stopped Cheney.
(Thank you for reading. Please remember this a big [expletive] deal!)
posted by todd gunther | 7:23 PM
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