I'M WE'RE JUST SAYIN': The Joey Nichols Club: Member #002

And our newest member is:

Doink

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), the ranking Democratic Senator, for

• Plagiarizing "a speech from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. Biden unsuccessfully defended the plagiarism claims arguing that he had previously correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions but failed to do so in an Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee. It was also revealed that he had plagiarised in law school 20 years earlier when, unaware of the appropriate standards for legal briefs, he'd used a single footnote while lifting five full pages from a legal article."

• Sponsoring the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act (eventually known as the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act) which makes it a federal crime to "knowingly and intentionally" make a place available "for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing, or using any controlled substance." Violators are subject to $250,000 or more in civil penalties, a criminal fine of up to $500,000, and a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Even Fox News was able to see the stupidity of this bill:
The people in charge of running the war say that we have to trust them: trust their integrity, and trust their judgment.

But how can we trust our government to spot terrorists when it thinks that glow sticks are items of "drug paraphernalia?" According to The Washington Post:

When he introduced the bill in June, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said "most raves are havens for illicit drugs," and congressional findings submitted with the bill label as drug paraphernalia such rave mainstays as bottled water, "chill rooms" and glow sticks.

My three-year-old nephew is fond of bottled water and glow sticks, and usually needs a "chill room." Presumably Biden regards him as a dangerous criminal.
• Whoring himself on CNN following a speech by President Bush:
...Biden bounced up on CNN during its post-speech analysis, reacting to anchor Paula Zahn's observation that the speech contained no references to that elusive search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Biden said it didn't matter, that American involvement had gone beyond that. "We have to secure Iraq for our safety's sake," Biden said.
• Acting like a complete douchebag in this interview with Paula Zahn:
PAULA ZAHN: And joining me now is the most powerful Democratic Senator, Joseph Biden of Delaware. So Senator, do you think Condoleezza Rice was truthful in her testimony before the Senate today?

BIDEN: I think she was evasive in her responses to Senator Boxer's questions about what I think was disinformation. She was literally correct when she said that the intelligence community, a portion of it, said those aluminum tubes were for a gas centrifuge system but, like others in the administration, she didn't point out that a significant portion of the intelligence community said no no, they're not for that purpose. But it was, to use the fancy word, it was disingenuous.

ZAHN: So Senator, you've found her disingenuous. Barbara Boxer your colleague basically said Dr. Rice's defense of the war "overwhelmed her perspective of truth". Isn't that going to be a problem for her?

BIDEN: Look. My standard is, if the person is, in my view, if the person is the President's choice, someone who has the competence intellectually and practically to do the job, then I err on the side of giving the president choice, so I will vote for her. But I wasn't particularly impressed by her performance today before the committee.

ZAHN: Senator, as we leave you tonight, I need some help with math here. You asked Dr. Rice a very pointed question about the number of Iraqi security forces that are really trained to do the job. She contended it was 120,000, you say based on your several visits to Iraq it's closer to 4,000. What are we talking about here?

BIDEN: In the field, if you ask any commanding officer over there, how many Iraqi military are ready to supplant an American force on the ground, you will get a number a heck of a lot closer to 4,000 than you will 120,000, and it's because we've had a really, really lousy training problem up until about three months ago when General Petraeus took over, and further because we have not taken advantage of the offers of the Egyptians, of the French even, and the Germans and others, to train Iraqi forces.

ZAHN: But Senator, we're talking about a 116,000 discrepancy here!

BIDEN: Absolutely positively.

ZAHN: So how can you support Dr. Rice if, in fact, her numbers are vastly different from yours? You don't believe her numbers!

BIDEN: Well, I believe her number in this regard. There are 120,000 people in uniform. Are they trained? No! Are they equipped? No! We are not winning in Iraq. The place is more dangerous. Unless there's a serious course change, we're in real trouble.

ZAHN: So how can you support her if she doesn't have a clear assessment of that?

BIDEN: Because that's the President of the United State's policy. You know, she's not the one that makes the policy. The President of the United States is saying the same things that she's saying. And the fact of the matter is I've never seen such concentration of power, within the White House and the Vice President's office, as I'm seeing now. Are they entitled to do that? Yeah! Is it a smart thing to do? No! Does it shut out other voices? Yeah! I think we're going in the wrong direction, I'm concerned about it, but, once she's Secretary of State, maybe there'll be a bit of an epiphany here. But I'm not counting on it.
• Being such a strong listener:
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden sat quietly, listening to it all. On another day, in another political reality, he might have been watching a presidential nominee self-destruct. The man who would be attorney general was coming off as evasive, as ill-prepared, as unwilling to accept responsibility for anything that happened on his watch as George W. Bush's White House counsel. But when Biden finally had his chance to put a question to (Alberto) Gonzales, he delivered this clear message instead: "You're going to be confirmed."
• Voting for The Bankruptcy Bill along with these other Democrats none of whom should "EVER be a Democratic Presidential Contender":
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lieberman (D-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
A bankruptcy bill that allows
...multi-millionaires to shield their assets but not average families...Under the bill, the very wealthy would be able to shield millions in assets after declaring bankruptcy by setting up "asset protection trusts." Schumer lamented "now we have a bill that says a family won't be protected if it has $50,000, but it will if it has $5 million.
A bill that
...will be especially hard on elderly Americans, who are bankrupted by medical bills with increasing frequency.
A bill that rewards the credit card industry which
...raked in $30 billion in profits last year, some of which is clearly being spent to grease the palms of Washington politicians. Bankruptcy hasn't hurt the credit card companies one iota.
• Proving that you can't spell B-I-D-E-N without MBNA:
According to Opensecrets.org, Biden raised some $147,700 in contributions from MBNA employees from 1999-2004, his biggest source of campaign cash.
• And for still Thinking he could actually someday be President of anything other than this club or the Hair Club for Men:
It's apparently never too early to declare you're running for the presidency. Delaware Senator Joe Biden unofficially declared on Wednesday that he's running for president in 2008. Sort of.

In an interview with Don Imus on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, the radio personality asked Biden, "Are you going to run this time?"

"Well, I'm going to proceed as if I'm going to run," Biden said.