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

[Phillip Fleming II]

Joe looks somewhat sane compared to "our son.".

[deroy]

what the media has refused to detail is the following:

Joe Biden has an IQ of 80!
Joe Biden finished 76/85 at law school.
Joe Biden was caught cheating is school and cried.
Joe Biden is a FIVE TIME DRAFT DODGER!
Joe Biden avoided military service during Vietnam.
Joe Biden had two brain surgeries for aneurysms.
Joe Biden never releasedd his medical records.
Joe Biden is certifiably stupid.
Joe Biden allowed other men to die in Vietnam for him.
Joe Biden lied on his Vietnam war service deferment.
Joe Biden's father avoided military service in WWII.

that is just the opening on Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
the most unqualified VP in 68 years. he remains DUMB.

[jggrimm]

Finally, the Vice President and I have something to agree on.

Beyond that light hearted acknowledgment of Mr. Biden, it is disturbing to think that as we move each day towards a terrible reckoning in our country, as Israel faces nuclear destruction by Iran, as Obama embraces the friends of Israel's enemies, as we graduate the unemployable and grant visas to so called skilled workers we can't understand, as illegal inmates do jobs people on welfare elect not to do, as inmates in California are afforded better health care than veterans, we can go to sleep at night knowing that Biden, Pelosi, Reid and Frank are going to fix health care, now that they have repaired the economy.

Oh, I shouldn't forget Al Gore. He's fighting global warming or something like that.

We have Jihadist in this country advancing their stated objective to destroy this country, and Joe Biden is calling his fellow Democrats names. Change we can believe in.

[M. McConnell]

There are some good guys in Congress. The problem is that 97% of them give the rest a bad name.

It has been known that SS and Medicare are going broke for over 25 years. Deficit spending is jeopardizing the value of the dollar. We don't know who crosses our southern border. Both parties have controlled Congress and the White House during this time and neither have done anything about them. Their primary concern is maintaining their power. The main problem is that the media is not covering their collective incompetence. If enough of us blast the media, maybe they will start doing their jobs. I wish you well.

[Tin man]

It's all a really bad dream. Right?

[Elbert Bonner]

I don't see anyone mentioning one of my favorite Biden remarks. That is where he feigned interaction he supposedly had with the folks back home in Deleware. What a liar! He alluded to how he had been yuckin' it up with the guys down at some restaurant that had gone out of business years before. Oh, I just love this guy. Could you imagine what a great comedy team he and Rod Blagojevich would make? They could be like one of the all-time great Vaudeville comedy acts. We're talkin' Abbott and Costello great.

[william saler]

Joe Biden has been an inspiration to me,and I have told my children to look at Joe Biden as a role model,, I tell them and they agree, if a moron like joe biden can be vice president, anyone who walks upright on this earth can too, Joe Biden is a legend in his own mind, and he said that he is a man of the people, that he goes home on the train, just like a real person,and has often rode the train with another example of an idiot who is a leader in the democrat party, arlen specter, who this week is still a democrat,,i think arlen has some brain issues, in fact i think Arlen got his brain damage having to lisen to joe biden on the train, we should not water board terrorists, we should make then lisen to joe biden talk about joe biden, no human can take that kind of torture.

[Elbert Bonner]

Also, let's not forget Sen. Claire McKaskill(D-MO) who said that he "has a tendency to talk forever and sometimes say things that are kind of stupid.” After realizing the errant comment she had just made about the VP candidate of her party, she tried to mitigate the extent of her faux pas by saying,"I was probably having a Joe Biden moment myself."
Of B.O. he said,"I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
And, the mayor of his hometown, Wilmington said, "We forgive him every once in a while when he says something dumb - 'Oh, that's just Joe."'

[Elbert Bonner]

I apologize for reilerating some light-hearted Biden moments. Dear ol' Joe told a story to the voters once that he understands the danger posed by the Afghan extremists by mentioning that he was on the "superhighway of terror" when the helicopter he was traveling in was "forced down" by enemy fire. The truth of the matter is that they had encountered a heavy snow storm and the pilot decided to land and wait it out.
And, concerning our friend Stewart's comment below where we are supposed to be impressed with Joe's 30+ years in the Foreign Relations Committee. Thirty year's experience of being an idiot is hardly what America needs for leadership. He's what we need for comic relief. You betcha! lol

[jjv]

LOL, look at the loony liberals here actually attempt t defend this walking, talking gaffe machine. This i the same guy who, while at a campaign stop last all shouted for a man he recognized in the crowd to "stand up, Chuck, let them see you", not even knowing the guy was a paraplegic and was wheel chair bound. Then we had the time h got into an argument wit reporters and used as his clincher, "My IQ is higer then yours". I could go on and on but there isn't enough bandwidth here to list all the utterly moronic things this fool has said over the years.

There's a big difference between being straight forward and being an imbecile.

[Bob Kern]

That statement is par for the coarse. Here we have the most corrupt administration in US history and this idiot can't even steal 1000.00 per plate without insulting somebody! Every policy these two crooks have tried cram down the Americans throat has failed and they keep getting worse everytime these jokes of humen beings open their mouths! Idiot Biden goes over to the Mid East last week and says Iran is not an immediate threat and then we find out him and his slimball leader are wrong again, as they are on every issue, and we find that Iran is actually building two nuke plants instead of one! This seems to be norm for the Dems though, get in front of your constituants, insult them, then the democratic voters turn right around and vote for them again. Keep going dumb and dumber I mean Obama and Biden! They should re-name the Democratic Party to the Dumocratc Party!

[GoldStarDad]

Biden is pretty much an idiot ! ! ! There's never been a camera Biden didn't like, and he seems to say really stupid things every time he gets in front of one. Couple that with Obama at the top, and the socialist/Dems in Congress, and we have what is destroying our country right now...

[Dave L.]

Joe Biden - the gift that keeps on giving! Unleash Joe!

[JustAGuy]

Biden the Buffoon is the reason why Obama won't be impeached after January 2011.

[Jackson Carter]

Our country doesn't have a scarcity of leaders; we are void of them. Obama, Biden, and Pelosi are the top three? The liberal element has achieved a dumber electorate, a bankrupt nation, and world leaders perceive America as a failure in progress. The conservatives are timid, and absent of the moral courage to do what must be done and say what must be said. Our children and grandchildren may never experience the pride and success felt for so long by past generations of Americans. Like so many, I have no answers ... only frustration and questions. A bold, decisive leader might turn the tide; however, such an individual is difficult to find.

[DET]

We were told that if we voted for the Republicans, we would get an idiot for a vice president. Well, I voted for the Republicans, and what do you know? We've got an idiot for a vice president.

Though he's probably right in this case.

[Darren]

To the folks picking on Dan Quail here, you must remember one thing: Dan Quail was a republican! That is the only reason he was tarred and feathered for ONE SPELLING ERROR! Lets look at that against the backdrop of all the other Republicans who have been ridiculed for NOTHING by the media in order to control the minds of the public. Think about it Democrats are NEVER called out on their truly outrageous stupidity. Ever! I could list examples but I dont have all day here.
Anyone without a handler can see the double standard in media and those who continue to take the main stream media seriously are either lying to themselves or just feeble minded.

[stewart]

seems to me some one has gone to a great deal of trouble to malign the vice president here, same vebage, same sentence structure, sme ol gop hack.

[Pete]

How the press tries to protect the failed policies of the Obama administration and the ignorant remarks and lies that come from democrat's mouths.

Take Joe Biden (please), for example. Times claims that the ignorant rants of Biden are refreshingly candid. The folks at should be informed that stupidity is never refreshingly candid.

The theme of this entire administration is stupidity mixed with marxism. More taxes, recind bushs' tax cuts, impose taxes on insurance, create a value added tax on consumption, let Iran develope the bomb, cut 384 agents from the Mexican border, give Al Gore's company a $500 million fed loan. It goes on and on with the american tax payser getting the shaft. And to add insult to injury, if you don't pay the $1900 for government run health care, you will be arrested, jailed or fined.
What a counrty we've become thanks to the democrats and their lap dog friends in the press like the L.A. Times.

What the idiots at the times and other papers don't get is that if they don't go bankrupt, when obama gets full control of the country he'll put them out of business any way. Stupid is as stupid does.

[bluewater113]

Biden tells the unvarnished truth while Obama tells lies.

[Dean]

Just like Obama and his NeoComs to start name calling those who disagree. This is fastly turning into a facist state. Do you now regret your vote for This college professor.

[henryclay]

Biden is spot on. Many Democrats are turkeys. Blagojevich, Sen. Ben Nelson, NY Gov. Paterson, Joe Lieberman, Robert Torricelli, Gray Davis, Gary Condit.

It's amazing how many dummies have won elective office as Dems. But they can't hold a candle to the nitwit Republicans who are now the majority of the cult of ignorance known as the Greedy Obnoxious Party.

[Jean]

Pot? Kettle?

[Jean]

Only Jimmy Carter sounds like a bigger old fool.

[Kurt]

I always said that the best ducks in the presidential row is Biden then Pelosi. Obama is bad enough IMO but those two as successors are a total Government backed health insurance plan for Obama. Please sir stay well!

[Zinger]

Where is Sarah when we need her?

[Carolyn]

Baseball had Shoeless Joe Jackson. The democrats have Clueless Joe Biden

[T-Bone]

Obama and Biden go down in a plane crash.

Who survives?

AMERICA!

[Jim]

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

[flounder]

Anyone criticizing Joe Biden is racist....

[Charlie]

I don't understand why people would be upset about him telling the truth yet again? Some Dems shouldn't be called "Blue Dogs," they should be called "Huge Turkeys."

[Skiman]

Did Obama name Biden the Dolt Czar.

[perky pauly]

Some are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, Joe was born with his foot in his mouth.

[Samuel K. Stafford]

Turkeys!?

I seem to recall that the "Turkeys" were the swing vote in electing a Democratic Congress in 2006, and America's President in 2008.

Between 1932 and 1964 Democrats won 7 out of 9 Presidential races.

Between 1968 and 2004, Democrats managed to eek out only 3 wins in 10.

It hasn't happened yet, there is still time to turn this around.

[Darrell Mc Neill]

The Vice-President of the United States needs to remember that he's not too fall up on the turkey list. I'm not sure what makes Mr. Biden's legs work. It can't be from his head. The mouth part of his body fall short from his brain. Good thing that Ms. Palin did become Vice-President and had said the same things Mr. Biden has said. The newspapers would have said that Vice-President should resign from her office. May be that should happen, that would be a good start. Darrell :)

[Dark Mark]

At his best, Biden is a witless scumbag and a plagiarist.

[PalinPal]

Funny that every one thought Sarah Palin was dumb - Biden is a joke.

[GPM]

Not all Democrats are equal? As a lifelong Democrat myself that HURTS, Joe!

I have to agree, however, that he's right. There is indeed a caste system among Democrats. There are governing class Democrats who truly and fundamentally believe elective office is a birthright to be passed from one generation to another; there are elite, multimillionaire and billionaire Democrats who think their wealth is evidence of their superiority and that they therefore know what's right for everyone else; there are the academics, who KNOW they're superior and that they know what's right for everyone else; the working class Democrats (a dying breed), and then there are the truly poor Democrats, the intended beneficiaries of a patriarchal system that only in the rarest of circumstances allows them to break free of the bonds of dependency.

While the Democrats caste system might be more stable, good arguments as to its morality can be made on both sides, and the Republican system is arguably a little more honest. The flaw in the Democrats system is that it will last only so long as no one looks behind the curtain, which explains the party's frustration with Joe's candor.

[Viper6]

Perhaps we should review all the appearances Biden has made on behalf of Democrat candidates so we can figure our which one's he is talking about.

[Albert Einstein]

Which Secret Service man has the job of wiping the drool from Bidens mouth after he gets done speaking? Surely it has been noticed that the man is mentally challenged! As I said earlier, Obama (The Annointed One) picked Biden knowing that that would guarantee no one would dare hurt a hair on his head with Dufuss next in line. However, I think I would rather have Dufuss in there instead of "The Annointed One." Basically we could all be amused until next election. Especially since the election in 2010 will pretty much give control back to the Republicans or at least lessen the amount of power the Dummy Dems now have.

[Ralph D Bredahl]

Second in line for pres and Pelosi is third.
The stuff nightmares are made from

[Randall]

That's the Old Joe we all love to laugh at... he could make a fool look good, which explains why he has continually been reelected all these years.

[Albert Einstein]

Sarah Palin is a genius compared to Biden. I should know. Normally Biden would be considered harmless. However, his position in life puts him in a spot where he can cause a lot of damage. It's just like his boss. Obama is President of the US. People think to themselves, "Well he is the President, so that must make him infallible." Whatever he says must be right." I don't think so. Thanks to our terrible public school system, plenty of people have been "dumbed down" over the years. Trouble is, they don't even realize it. The people who do realize it are called trouble makers or Nazi if tehy are white because they try to do the right thing. Black people who realize it are called "Uncle Toms" by their fellow black citizens.

[Duane]

Biden is calling someone else a turkey? HA!

[GeneZ]

Calling them, "turkeys?"

There he goes plagiarizing again!

He was surely not the first to say that.

But, by now, its probably public domain. ;-)

[Ernie]

Both Biden and Robb campaigned for obama....... Just sayin'

[gneubeck]

Gaffe-prone Joe Biden is NOT wrong all the time. Remember that it was Joe Biden who correctly noted that: "the White House is not the proper venue for Obama's On-The-Job-Training". Little did we know how prophetic that comment would prove to be. Greg Neubeck

[yo mama]

The liberals have taken over my party.I will be voting different next election.

[Sporty gal]

"And I'd like to introduce my drop-dead gorgeous wife"
Who would say that this day and age?

[Frank S]

Still not as good as "Stand up, Chuck" put pretty funny anyway. He's the fist VP in history that needs a laugh track everytime he speaks.