"BLABBERMOUTH BIDEN"
by Timothy Rollins
Some
time back, I was in Delaware visiting a dear friend in Wilmington. Her name
is Joni, and as I see it, everyone should have a friend like her. A straight
shooter, Joni tells it like it is, and her direct opinions are both a delight
as well as a breath of fresh air. In the years I have known her, it has been
both her strength of character and unflinching honesty that have only added
to the beauty that is so evident within her. We had a wonderful visit, and during
our time there, she and I were discussing one of many passions we have in common
– politics – particularly politics within the Beltway. Given that Wilmington
is less than 100 miles away from Washington, there is more of a local touch
to what happens in Washington's corridors of power.
So talented is Joni at helping draw out new ideas in people, that I even wrote a column while I was visiting with her. That column was on the then-recent Murder 1 conviction of former ADA and prominent local attorney Thomas Capano, where a jury was deliberating whether or not he should die for his crime. Bad luck for Capano that Delaware has one of America’s most prolific death chambers, as he was subsequently sentenced to death.
As we were having a snack, Joni and I were discussing some of the goings-on within Washington. One of her complaints was of her own senator, Democrat Joseph Biden, who apparently is known in local circles as “Blabbermouth Biden”. Biden’s latest verbal gaffe about American troops being “high-tech bullies” is but the latest in a string of remarks that is wholly and completely inappropriate – particularly in the case of a sitting United States Senator.
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To
look at Biden’s latest case of foot-in-mouth disease is to take a reflection
on a man who is without honor, dignity or most of all, integrity. Back in 1988,
Biden was forced out of the Democratic Presidential primary when it was revealed
that he stole material almost word for word from a campaign ad
of then-British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock (pictured, right). If this was
an isolated incident, that would be one thing. However, Biden has not limited
himself to this one screw-up. Not by a long shot.
In addition to “boastful exaggerations of his academic record” at a New Hampshire campaign event, Biden also had the lack of good judgment to help himself to some quotations from speeches by past Democratic politicians without having the decency of giving proper attribution – and that’s not even the kicker.
You have to wonder what it is with the people of Delaware to have elected Biden to the Senate in 1972. This was a guy who was caught cheating while in law school at Syracuse University only five or so years earlier, and who had to turn in an Oscar® caliber performance of begging (or should I say groveling) so as not to get tossed out of law school when it was discovered he was in fact guilty of plagiarizing.
One cannot help but think that such serial cheating helped pave the way for the likes of the Clintons with their lying, cheating and plundering in measures the American people had never known before and hopefully never will again. How can America teach its sons and daughters the importance of living lives of honor, virtue and integrity if their elected officials have so clearly shown that they are either incapable or unwilling to do so themselves? And it’s not just the Clintons either. Remember four-term Washington DC Mayor Marion Barry? He did his fourth term as Mayor AFTER doing a stretch at “Club Fed” on cocaine charges. What exactly is wrong with this picture?
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The
more I think of Biden (pictured, left) and others of his stripe, the more I
realize what Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) meant when he told then-House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) at President Clinton's impeachment trial
that he didn’t care if there was video of Clinton standing over a dead body,
“there was no way he (Henry) would get the 67 votes needed to convict.”
One of the reasons Clinton got off the hook was because of Biden and all too many more like him in both the House and particularly the Senate who were not “clean” enough to really go after Clinton. When Hillary Clinton (with the help of a former Little Rock bouncer named Craig Livingstone) put together an “enemies list” early in their administration, one of the purposes of this list was to ensure that there would not be enough clean members of either the House or the Senate to secure a conviction against Bill Clinton if the need arose – and sure enough, it did.
It is people like “Blabbermouth Biden” who jeopardize not only American resolve in seeing this war through to a successful conclusion; it is people like Biden who are doing their level best to turn Afghanistan into Bush’s “Vietnam” – a war fought by politicians. Like so many in both the House and the Senate, Biden has never seen a day in uniform himself – and as such, hasn’t got the slightest clue as to what it takes to defend a nation.
For the information of Congress, it is not their duty to fight the wars America gets involved in. That is what the troops are for, with the generals and admirals periodically reporting to Congress. It is NOT the responsibility of Congress to micromanage the war. The troops are trained to fight the war, and they should be left alone to ply their trade to whatever extent necessary in order to preserve American lives and interests.
It was this “hands-off” philosophy that allowed the Allied coalition to succeed so well in Operation Desert Storm 11 years ago. While Congressional figures may have had individual misgivings during the war, they by and large kept their mouths shut on the grounds of preserving the national interest.
Unlike 1990, where Iraq invaded Kuwait, we have experienced on our own soil a catastrophic loss of life as well as destruction and its ripple effects on an unprecedented scale in our history – and these namby-pamby wimps in Congress have neither the stomach nor the cojones to see this through to the end. Rather than uniting behind the President and the collective will of the American people, some of our congresscritters began blabbing. The leaks that were getting out prompted the President to justifiably restrict release of key information to Congressional leaders only – and they want to know why they can’t be trusted.
The nature of these “loose lips” has reached a point that a North Carolina congressman is seeking to pass into law a measure requiring all members of the House and Senate to qualify for their security clearances before taking office under the same criteria that us mere ordinary citizens who handle classified material are required to meet.
I remember having to fill out questionnaires and undergo some interviews as I was being qualified for a security clearance while on active duty. I even remember some of my friends mentioning their being asked about me. I understood this to be part of the drill when it came to security. Unfortunately, Congress does not seem to understand this as they have exempted themselves from the rules they make the rest of us live by. But then again, what else is new?
Until America eliminates the “Blabbermouth Bidens” from its halls of power, until we as a nation make it absolutely clear that we will not tolerate loud-mouthed politicians who sell our collective national soul for the sake of a five-second sound bite on the talking-heads circuit, we as a nation will continue to be at risk not only from the enemies outside America wishing to do it harm; we will be at even greater risk from enemies within seeking to do the same. ***
© 2001 Timothy Rollins
COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.