Truth (plus lies) » joe biden

A good point about filibustering Supreme Court nominees

Jefff — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:57:57 +0000

If republicans decide to filibuster Obama’s next Supreme Court nominee, Obama won’t have a lot of room to shame them. Because they have a point about this:

"It didn't go without being noticed that only two of the elected officials in the room had never filibustered a Supreme Court nominee," says one Republican Senate aide. Those two, of course, were McConnell and Sessions. So at the moment, the only lawmakers who are being criticized for even being open to the possibility of a filibuster are the ones who have never, in fact, taken part in one. "It's kind of challenging for Democrats now to make the case that Republicans ought to be helpful and speed things up when they not only tried to slow Alito down but voted against cloture," says the Senate aide.

Via Instapundit

Health Care Reform is ‘a big fucking deal’

Jefff — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:37:22 +0000

Vice President Joe Biden, perhaps overcome with excitement during his speech congratulating President Obama on the passage of health care reform, dropped an F-bomb on live television when he turned to Obama and said, “This is a big fucking deal.”

VP and POTUS holding hands

Jefff — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:31:39 +0000

Always fun: The White House Flickr stream. Here’s a picture of the President and Vice President holding hands.

Presidents (And Near-Presidents) Have Unoriginal Names

Jefff — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:27:29 +0000

Barack Obama and Joe Biden were both named after their fathers. John McCain was named after his father (who was named after his own father). George Bush was (obviously) named after his father. Even Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III.

President Bush Is Clearly Not Brain Dead

Jefff — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:33:02 +0000

PolitiFact tracks the truth + lies that politicians tell. For instance, John McCain has racked up 6 “Pants on Fire” grade claims. Neither Barack Obama nor Sarah Palin have been that egregious (though Obama does have a number of “False” and “Barely True” claims). I was very curious to check out what Joe Biden’s two “Pants on Fire” lies were. The first was when he said that Giuliani was probably the most underqualified man to run for president, and the second was this:

During a campaign stop in Iowa on July 4, the six-term senator declared, “This guy [Pres. Bush] is brain-dead.”

It’s an extreme charge, since brain death is defined as “irreversible unconciousness with complete loss of brain function” (Encyclopedia of Death and Dying).

Needless to say, we find the charge ridiculous. There’s no evidence Biden performed the necessary medical tests to make such a diagnosis. We would have accepted the results of a cerebral blood flow study or proof that Biden had examined Bush to see if he had an oculocephalic reflex.

Indeed, even people who disagree with the president about Iraq and assorted other issues will acknowledge that the president has spontaneous respiration and is responding to stimuli.