Joe Biden update: He calls some fellow Democrats 'turkeys'

(UPDATE: An update on Biden's schedule has been added to the end of this item.)

Vice President Joe Biden did not need Air Force Two Thursday night to travel across the Potomac River to McLean, Va., to the home of former Democratic Virginia Gov. and Sen. Chuck Robb.

It was, of course, a fundraiser, designed to help finance three freshman Democratic House candidates -- Glenn Nye, Gerry Connolly and Tom Perriello -- in their challenging reelection races 13 months from now in what once was a predictably GOP state.

Robb himself did not speak at the event. His wife, Lynda, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, introduced the trio of representatives.

But it looks like Joltin' Joe stepped in something again, rhetorically speaking.

About 100 supporters had paid $1,000 each to gather in the open-air pool house where Biden spoke. 

"I don’t have to tell you that you’re in a very competitive state,” the vice president said, according to the press pool notes. “You got some tough votes coming up.”

Biden called the three men “independent minded” and “damn competent,” adding, however, that they were all united on core Democratic Party themes, including energy policy and healthcare. 

“These guys are smart, "Biden asserted. "Some of the guys Chuck [Robb] and I have campaigned for are turkeys. Not all Democrats are created equal, while most Republicans are.”

The voluble Biden has a reputation for sometimes getting carried away in remarks, as refreshingly candid though they may be to some non-administration ears. Last fall at one gathering, a shirt-sleeved Biden paced the stage with a microphone and said Hillary Clinton would have been a better running-mate choice for Barack Obama to make, a gaffe that prompted the campaign to end most of Biden's media interviews then and there.

GOP candidates may also have some fun in coming months speculating to partisan crowds which Democrats the vice president had in mind as small-minded birds.

Biden became a U.S. senator way back when the 48-year-old Obama was a sixth-grader. And ran for the presidency himself twice. So he's campaigned with and for many Democratic politicians over all these years.

Perhaps understandably, on Thursday night the vice president did not proceed to list which fellow Democrats that he's campaigned who are the turkeys and which are the smart ones. And presumably Biden did not intend to imply that most Republicans are smart.

But he might be asked about all that in coming days by the media -- or even White House folks. And many fans of politics may be trying to guess which Democrats Biden had in mind when he likened them to those tasty but dim birds.

Obama was in Pittsburgh overnight as host for the G-20 summit and protests. He'll return to the White House this evening.

Biden is off to Georgia (the American one) this morning to briefly watch floodwaters. He'll return to Washington in the afternoon for what has become one of his frequent duties, swearing someone in. Before heading for Delaware, Biden will administer the oath to Paul Kirk. He's the senate replacement for the late Ted Kennedy. Kirk was just named to that spot Thursday morning by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

(UPDATE: 4:44 p.m. The vice president's weekend schedule has just been released. Here it is: "Vice President Biden will be in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday and Sunday. There are no public events scheduled.")

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Getty Images

Comments

[Mike S]

Keep up the good work, O'biden!

[Jay]

Biden is a moron. The only one worse is Obama. God help us.

[stewart]

So what we are saying here is that one more time again Its Joe Biden speaking the unvarnished truth? Telling it straight like it t-i-z tiz?
If there is one thing that this country seriously needs right now, perhaps more than ever given the wide range of problems the new adminstration faces it's a vp that is cut from the same cloth as Biden as opposed to that which we have seen in the prior adminstration.
Joe has been very straight forward with Iraq telling the people and the gvt there that Iraq must assume control of its own destiny. Biden put forward the Biden-Gelb plan for the rebuilding of Iraq that gives autonomy to the threee regions to be governed by a weaker federal central gvt, giving those regions an equal share in Iraq's wealth which has not been the case during the past.
Biden is the right man at the right time in history with the right 30 plus years experience in the senate foreign relations committee as its chair, and the judiciary committee as well, to be at the side of, and give the president good council on issues of import and not the least of which is Afghanistan which Biden cautions against, and one more time? from all accounts?
Unvarnished unambiguos truth....
I'm with Joe!

[Elder Jane]

Thank you, Flip Wilson.

[LEL, White Bear Lake, MN]

Countdown until Obama leaves Office
1213 Days, 06 Hours, 38 Minutes, 18 Seconds.

[Dennis D]

Biden is the dumbest man ever to become Vice President. Worse than Quayle.

[Anna909]

Well I guess it's better to be called a turkey rather than a moron like some Democrats call Biden.

[djn]

Ah, VP Biden, the gaff gift that keeps on giving.

[Tommy]

Well... I guess it takes one to know one....

[Michael O'Rourke]

Yup, between Biden and BO, we now have the two most ignorant men in
American history in the White House. At least Biden isn't a racist and a bigot like BO.

[Jenny Bea]

I love it when Joe talks. He's so funny. He just reiterates the competence of this administration. We sure have some smart folks off in that Whitehouse. I wish they'd give joe a longer leash, so he can do more media interviews and speeches. Especially his unscripted speeches. Why hide the VP? Let's all get the very best glimpse of this guy in action! Joe doesn't need a teleprompter! They need to give Joe a break and let the American people have their comic relief. The president is about as bright as a black light. They can let Joe have at the media, and we can all make better judgements about these folks!

[Larry]

Just think if there were term limits for the senate and congress as for presidents and thank God for that, we would have been rid of this Joe Biden decades ago. Why do we keep reelecting them? WHY!!

[James Nance]

Favorite Biden's:

1. Said that Obama will focus on a three letter word, "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs."

2. Asked a man in a wheelchair to stand-up.

3. Said that FDR addressed the nation on TV after the stock market crash in 1929.

4. Right before the State Department was about to start high level tops with Russia, Biden called Russia a backward financial country.

5. Once pushed for Iraq to broken up into tiny little countries.

6. Once suggested that we give Iran $500 million as a gesture of friendship.

7. Claimed he graduated in the top half of his graduation class when he finished 76th out 85th students.

8. Gave a green light to Israel to attack Iran.

9. Got caught in college on stealing and turing in another person's term paper.

10. Got caught twice given a speeches that were from other people.

Got to love Joe.

[s.pratte]

What is it with these people and the name calling?

[Larry]

So if we demanded the resignation of this VP, would we get Pelosi as a VP? What a choice!! Although one good thing about that is it would be one less professional politician in Washington.

[kathyk]

To know one, is to be one! Way to go, Biden!

[martin D.]

Candid...only because he's a Democrat are Biden's 'gaffes' described in this way. If Biden had been a Republican, the media would be following him around and laughing at him continuously.

[Charles]

Yes Joe, most Republicans ARE created equal - with intelligence and common sense and decency.

Democrats are not. They are proving to be vile and contemptuous without a care for their fellow man except where they can TELL THEM what they can and cannot do. They are filled with nasty hubris.

At least the liberals are. Filled liberally with crap.

[gutsygirl]

Is it me or is this guy Spiro Agnew II?

[longhornsandbeer]

Is he talking again?

[eyesjamesq]

Joe Biden aka Dummy in Waiting has turned from insulting conservative grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who oppose Marxism being foisted upon them and has now set his eyes on Democrat members of Congress who question the validity of this Administrations agenda. I can hardly wait till 2010.

[ProfBill]

The TRUTH always HURTS.

[Steve]

Yeah, right. Tough follow-up questions by the media? Almost spit coffee on my keyboard laughing at that one...

[wayne harris]

Mr. Biden may have the perfect make-believe job, and he gets to ride in a helocopter. He should, however, consider the reality every turkey has to live with...how many days is it until Thanksgiving. Because, like turkeys,these congressmen will soon have thier heads on the chopping block . Behead them all I say!
I hope Joe Biden undestands how much of a clown and Court Jestor he appears. If he does not, then he is impervious to redicule and therefore must be held blameless.
We have a president who would be a king , and a vice president who would be his fool. An ideal Shakespearian plot, but I can't decide if it tragedy or comedy.What a pickle!

[Timothy L. Pennell]

Isn't it amazing how Opposite Attract? You've got one IDIOT, who LIES every time he opens his mouth. And he gets a FREE PASS. And the other one keeps telling the TRUTH, and he keeps getting his head handed to him. At least they're both IDIOTS.