This is a platform I adopted to spur me to write more about politics and the human condition. My well went rather dry after my memoir’s successful publication by the Oregon State University Press in September 2019 (Catch and Release; An Oregon Life in Politics).
Today, I’m thinking about Joe Biden, a man I've known for forty-odd years.
I'm glad to see him resist the limp entreaties of Republican senators to cut his Covid Relief Bill by two-thirds. By putting it on a “budget reconciliation” bill, he can pass it with Democratic votes alone. Screw the filibuster! Yes, the GOP will feel blue (as it were!) but that’s the tactic they used to pass *Rump’s egregious tax cut that enriched multi-millionaires.
Joe was Veep the last time I was with him. I was paying him a visit at his White House office. In his reception area, he greeted me with that million-dollar smile. As I followed him into his office, I stopped myself from blurting out "Joe." Then I started laughing. Hard.
Biden looked at me a bit quizzically until I explained. "Mr. Vice President," I said, "I damned near called you 'Joe' and then remembered Sara Palin. In your debate in 2008, she asked if she could call you 'Joe.' I think I almost channeled that woman!"
We cracked up. "You won't believe why she did that," he said with a twinkle in his eye. I could not. "My Republican pals in the Senate said in debate rehearsals, she couldn't stop calliing me 'O-Biden'."
The vice president and I laughed a belly laugh that topped any other I can remember.
Nice article about Joe Biden.