Joe Biden gaffe week: What did he say now?
| Washington
Geez, Joe Biden, it鈥檚 been kind of a rough week for him, hasn鈥檛 it? At least in terms of slips of the tongue.
First there was the controversy when Vice President Biden used the pejorative 鈥渟hylocks鈥� during a Tuesday speech. He ended up apologizing to the Anti-Defamation League for using a word derived from Shakespeare鈥檚 stereotypically offensive Jewish money-lender character in 鈥淭he Merchant of Venice.鈥�
Then on Wednesday in another public appearance Biden talked about 鈥渢he Orient鈥� when referring to former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew. Some Asians see that as demeaning 鈥� an old-time, mystery-of-the-Far-East phrase that belittles their continent.
And on Friday came gaffe number three. As a means of illustrating how the Republican Party has in his eyes moved to the right and become more intransigent, he discussed former GOP senators who in their day worked across the aisle to get important legislative work done. One he mentioned was former Maryland Sen. Charles 鈥淢ac鈥� Mathias. Then Biden threw in 鈥淧ackwood鈥� 鈥� former Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood.
Senator Packwood resigned under pressure in 1995 due to the emergence of multiple, highly detailed allegations of sexual harassment and assault against women. He might well have been expelled if he had not quit first 鈥� the Senate Ethics Committee had already recommended that he be kicked out.
Did we say that the conference at which Biden referred positively to Packwood was a Democratic Women鈥檚 Leadership forum?
Joe Biden has in fact been an outspoken advocate of measures designed to protect women against violence for his whole political career. Twenty years ago, he was a primary sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act, a ground-breaking law that made it easier to prosecute such crimes and allocated more federal money for that purpose.
Jon Stewart of 鈥淭he Daily Show鈥� actually t, saying that Biden had spoken 鈥減assionately about the issue鈥� since the day he arrived in Washington.
But 鈥渁s Joe Biden giveth, Joe Biden taketh away,鈥� intoned Stewart.
In other words, the supercharged speaking ability that makes Biden passionate can also be his downfall. The words come out too fast and hang there, in the air before him, and he can鈥檛 grab them back. It鈥檚 too late.
That鈥檚 why Biden has risen as far as he is going to, according to Stewart, talking about the 鈥渟hylock鈥� and 鈥淥rient鈥� mistakes.
鈥淥f the United States, he will not be President,鈥� said Stewart.
We agree with that. (Yes, we鈥檝e been wrong before 鈥� feel free to remind us of this prediction when President Biden and VP Elizabeth Warren take the oath in 2017.)
That got us thinking. Dick Cheney did not run for president. It does not appear as if Joe Biden will win the nomination. How long has it been since two VPs in a row did not get a chance at the brass ring of American power?
Specifically, who were the last two Veeps in a row who subsequently did not win a party presidential nomination, or accede to the presidency through the president鈥檚 death or resignation? 聽
It鈥檚 been a while. Charles Curtis, VP under Herbert Hoover, lost his post when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the 1932 election. He retired to practice law in Washington and never ran for office again. Then FDR鈥檚 first VP, John Nance Garner, served two terms and then ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1940. He lost when the canny Roosevelt maneuvered his way into an unprecedented third term. That was it for Garner鈥檚 political career.
FDR鈥檚 second VP, Henry Wallace, was a liberal who ran for president as the Progressive Party candidate in 1948. So we鈥檒l go with VPs Curtis and Garner as the winners of this dubious prize.
[Editor's note: John Nance Garner's name was misspelled in the original version.]
