Joe Biden Quotes of the Week

#1: Healthcare

"I get handed one more clipboard I feel like clanging somebody on the head. How many times do I have to fill out, yeah, I had asthma, yeah, I had two craniotomies?" (8/20/09 - Chicago roundtable)

This Thursday the VP was in the Windy City with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talking about (not surprisingly) healthcare. The roundtable discussion at Sinai Hospital came along with an announcement that the administration will be doling out $1.2 billion in grants aimed at modernizing struggling hospitals. Nurses complained about violent ER patients who throw bed pans and spit at her and another doctor says it's frustrating to be unable to refer patients to dieticians because insurance won't cover it. Electronic records, as Biden proposes, will not fix everything, but it's a start, they say. No one can say for sure whether the Democrats are going into this bull-nosed and unwilling to pass any health care reform without a public option (as Nancy Pelosi suggests) or whether moderate Dems and Republicans will come together to pass something more similar to independent cooperative healthcare that can compete with the larger providers.

#2: Former Administration

"He's the president; I'm the vicepresident; we've got the pecking order in this administration right. I know George Bush, and he's no Barack Obama!" (8/19/09 - Florida fundraiser)

For $1,000/plate, the Vice President had better crack a few jokes! He was in Orlando on Wednesday to raise support for House Rep Alan Grayson, who had a lot to say about Joe Biden. Grayson mentioned that Cheney had given Biden the White House tour, complete with the dungeon and torture rack stop. He also added that the "real change in power" wasn't from Bush to Obama but from Cheney to Biden. The VP said that Grayson was a bad comedian, but added that Grayson is "a guy who doesn't back down from a fight, and doesn't back down from what he believes in."

#3: Chicago House Rep Debbie Halvorson

"It's not just a congresswoman. This is bigger than Debbie. This is bigger than me. I promise you: If the Republicans succeed in knocking off these new bright stars ... What do you think the chances [are] for the kind of reform we need for that little 3-year-old beauty in the next four to six years?" (8/19/09 - Chicago fundraiser)

Gesturing to a 3-year-old girl listening to his speech may have been a cheap trick to tug at our heart strands and an overly emphatic way of making his point. (Do you think the Republicans want to block 3-year-olds from health care?) Yet the Chicago audience ate it up. Halvorson faces an uphill battle against a National Air Guard pilot/former commissioner, a farmer and an activist/church TV show producer. I guess you'd really have to be embedded in Chicago politics to understand why someone with 12 years in the state Senate and a year in the House would be so nervous that she'd have to call up Biden for support. Then again, maybe Biden is just that cool to "hang out with."  

On another note, it's interesting to see the same old battle royale is starting up again, fear mongering and all, which makes us roll our eyes recalling about all that silly talk about "bipartisanship" during the primary season. Barack Obama may be a fair-minded individual, but he's certainly ready to play hard ball, especially when his batter is Joe Biden and he's got Nancy Pelosi on first, Kathleen Sebelius on second and Rahm Emanuel on third.