Joe Biden update: Now, a secret oath-giving closed to the press

A short time from now Vice President Joe Biden will disappear again from the public eye.

Don't worry too much. It's nothing involving a hidden bunker, that anyone knows about at least.

We've mentioned here before the Veepster's proclivity for the same kind of private, which is to say closed to the press, which is to say secret meetings that his evil predecessor Dangerous Dick Cheney also preferred, despite denunciations by Democrats in Congress, where Biden had served since his current boss was 11 years old.

Funny coincidence too because today is the first anniversary of that 2008 election eve when Obama and Biden wrapped up their successful $750 million campaign for the White House promising change to believe in and historic governing transparency involving such things as no lobbyists, publicly posting legislation days before signing and open meetings on C-SPAN.

This is another busy day for Biden, full of speech-listening and lunch-giving. This morning he heard German Chancellor Angela Merkel address a joint session of Congress. Then, Biden hosted a closed lunch for U.S.-European Summit participants, and later he'll sit in on the private meeting between President Obama and Secy. of Defense Robert Gates.

But the Biden schedule item that intrigues most today involves another one of his secret meetings, one that on the surface would not seem to require secrecy. It's the swearing-in of the president's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Not only that, it's the ceremonial swearing-in, meaning they're already been sworn in officially. This one is just for fun.

What kind of Democratic arts projects require secrecy?

Here's how the session appears on today's official vice presidential schedule as published by the White House, which apparently forgot to turn its clocks back last weekend:

At 4:00 PM EDT (sic), the Vice President will administer the oath of office at the ceremonial swearing-in of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. This event is closed press.

-- Andrew Malcolm

This too is top secret, so for goodness sakes don't put it on the Internet. But if you click here, you'll get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. And we're also over here on Facebook.

Photo: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg News

When the Barack Obama man stops by selling healthcare reform

A not-so-hypothetical scenario these days:

(Doorbell) "Hello. You don't have a vicious dog, do you? I'm selling healthcare reform on your street and I want to tell you a little about it."

"Well, we already have healthcare insurance at work and we're really quite happy with it."

"Ah, yes, but you might not have it for long because costs are spiraling out of control and..."

"You know what? When did costs ever go down? I paid 27.9 cents a gallon for gas to the prom and $2,400 for a full year of private college."

"Yes, but 47 million Americans don't have health insurance and..."

"Well, I'm sorry for them. Truly. But right now our family is more worried about the economy and keeping our own paychecks. How's that job jolt stimulus thing coming along that was so urgent last winter? Because we haven't seen..."

"That's another issue completely. This summer I'm selling healthcare reform. We don't have all the particulars from Nancy Pelosi and Max Baucus yet, but I can guarantee you the reforms won't add another dime to the federal deficit."

"Yeah, right, and the Cubs are gonna win the World Series."

"They are? Even with Reed Johnson out for a month?"

"No, don't worry. I was wondering how you spend billions more that you don't....

Reid's blocking of Burris not about race, Reid declares

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it is totally ridiculous for "a lot of people" to suggest that his leadership of the barring of African American Roland Burris from the U.S. Senate and his reported pre-arrest recommendation to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich to avoid nominating any of three other African Americans to the Barack Obama vacancy is racially driven in any way.

Hear Harry's words for yourself in the video below.

On the jump (click on the "Read more" line) we have a detailed video on yesterday's Capitol Hill Burris circus that sucked much attention away from the happy congressional opening that Reid had sought.

Reid made today's statement as part of a smooth 178- or 179-degree turnaround from his original vow to bar any appointee of fellow Democrat Blagojevich. Remember the letter signed by 50 Democratic  senators rejecting any Blagojevich appointee?

Anyway, today the Nevada senator had gracious words for an earnest Burris, whom he quoted as agreeing on the non-racialness of the controversy. He said Burris would meet Thursday with Illinois legislators, presumably to get his Senate nomination certified by someone other than the cloud-covered governor.

After tomorrow, Reid said, the Senate would be "in a different position to see what we are going to do." He added that he wanted "to do what we can do."

Reid and Illinois' other Democratic senator, Dick Durbin, are clearly attempting to find an escape tunnel out of their own PR mess. Apparently, they've settled on Burris talking to home state legislators and getting the really important signature of state Secretary Jesse White, another Democrat.

Unfortunately, White was on WGN radio in Chicago today, saying his signature wasn't required at all; it's just a ceremonial formality. And the Congressional Black Caucus, which contains no black senators because there aren't any until Burris gets in, unanimously urged accepting the newcomer.

The ever-wise Sam Stein over at Huffington Post reports that Obama aides are also pressing Reid to seat Burris and end this sideshow distraction. While Reid declares that he will not become a mere rubber stamp just for some popular Democratic president, that he doesn't work for the president, he works with him.

Last month it was Senate Leader Reid prohibiting any Illinois seating. Today, according to Reid, it's really going to come down to maybe the Rules Committee but ultimately the Senate itself to decide on seating the 71-year-old Illinois nominee and former comptroller and state attorney general. Ex-Sen. and President-elect Obama today said it was entirely a Senate matter.

Asked today if he'd been outmaneuvered politically, Reid replied, "It's simply not true."

Yesterday, California's influential Sen. Dianne Feinstein broke with Reid's Senate leadership and said Burris should be seated.

So, in other words, Roland Burris will soon be seated.

Non-racial score: Blagojevich 1 Reid 0

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Ticket Replay: 3 papers endorse McCain; coincidentally, they're kicked off Obama's plane

This weekend The Ticket is republishing some items of particular interest from the past political season. This one appeared here originally on Sept. 31, 2008:

The Barack Obama for president campaign has kicked off its campaign plane three newspaper reporters.

The campaign says it was a tough decision deciding to boot the working reporters for the New York Post, the Dallas Morning News and the Washington Times. But, they say, there are only so many seats on the plane that the spunky new Christian Science Monitor politics blog calls "O-Force One."

And somebody had to go for these last few campaign days.

It's probably just a simple coincidence that all three newspapers recently endorsed Obama's Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, for the White House job.

"It feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth," quipped John Solomon, executive editor of the Times, which lost its seat after three years of travel with the candidate and just 72 hours after endorsing McCain.

That newspaper's website this afternoon headlined a report that Obama spent nearly $700,000 in U.S. campaign donations just on staging and lights for that Berlin victory rally last summer and those 200,000 Germans who can't vote over here. Gee, you could dress more than four Republican vice presidential candidates with that much money.

What's not to like in that news for the Obama campaign?

The Dallas paper reported no evidence its plane departure was political. Think about it: Why would a political campaign take retribution on reporters for a decision made by their publication's separate editorial boards? The publications, after all, pay their own way on the charters.

That would be a cheesy hardball -- and quite possibly counterproductive -- Chicago kind of thing for a frontrunner to do, especially one on a national unity ticket. A candidate's organization would have to reflect an enormous ego and over-confidence to pull something like that.

Next thing you know such a campaign might urge supporters to clog a radio station's phone lines or e-mail boxes just because it gave air-time to an Obama critic.

And it's certainly not the kind of hands-across-the-aisle, bipartisan change we need and/or can believe in a national capital that could use a large dose of both.

True, the Obama campaign has buttoned itself up from most press access, apparently fearing some kind of late-minute gaffe that might threaten its lead in most polls.

A reporter could choose to travel instead on the Joe Biden plane, plenty of seats there, and perhaps really exciting, except the old-time senator who ad libbed that Hillary Clinton might have been a better Democratic VP pick coincidentally hasn't done a media availability since right after the Republican convention in early September.

Amazingly, as Howard Kurtz points out, two seats did suddenly open up on the Obama campaign plane this weekend to accommodate Ebony and Essence magazine reporters. Another coincidence. 

--Andrew Malcolm

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Ticket Replay: S.C. Dem chair says Sarah Palin's 'primary qualification' is not having an abortion

The Ticket is republishing some items this weekend from the recent political season. This one originally appeared in this space on Sept. 10, 2008:

Thank goodness after all this lipstick-swine silliness we can get back to the important issues of this evolving presidential campaign, like whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin should have gotten an abortion upon learning during her recent pregnancy that she would give birth to a baby boy with Down syndrome.

We were shocked too to learn today that the "issue" of her non-abortion had apparently not been vetted by Sen. John McCain's campaign.

Nor, it seems, has that problem come up during the hasty media vetting of the  44-year-old mother of five since she was named the surprise Republican vice presidential running mate on Aug. 29.

Fortunately, Carol Fowler, the chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, was on duty to alert the rest of us today. In the apparent Palin Panic that seems to be seizing some local Democrats, Fowler told Alex Burns over at Politico.com that the former city councilwoman, mayor, current governor and vice presidential nominee was a female candidate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion."

The Ticket was, of course, in the Xcel Energy Center last week when....

Ticket Replay: Joe Biden's history lesson off by 4 years, 1 president, but otherwise dead-on

This weekend The Ticket is republishing some items from the past political season. This one appeared here originally on Sept. 12, 2008. Biden and the Obama ticket would seem to have survived these gaffes:

When Barack Obama took Joe Biden to be his lawfully vetted running mate, the freshman Illinois senator took the veteran Delaware senator loose lips and all. And Republicans took note.

The same day Obama tapped Biden, the famously verbose Delaware senator who's been in in the Senate since Obama was 11, the Republican National Committee launched a website to monitor Biden's future gaffes. But with so much attention focused on the shooting star of the GOP's vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and watching for her first big mistake, less attention has fallen on Biden's accumulating missteps.

During his first several weeks as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Biden did a surprisingly good job of keeping his foot out of his mouth. Sure, he slipped occasionally (like the time he asked a crowd to welcome his running mate "Barack America" to the stage. Or the time he said "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America"). But they're not the sort of bungles that start wars.

Now, however, the honeymoon appears over.

Biden has blundered badly several times in the past several days, often on issues relating to the economy.

He's been caught contradicting his running mate, which is among every political ticket's Ten Commandments of no-no's.

And on one occasion, he got his facts wrong. With voters closely watching and worrying about the financial crisis, these inconsistencies could have consequences come Nov. 4, now less than six weeks away.

And they distract badly from the message the Obama campaign is trying to push on John McCain (namely, that the Arizona Senator is out of touch on the economy).

Biden made one mistake last week, when NBC's Meredith Vieira asked him whether the federal government should bail out ailing....

First, by golly, Sarah Palin; now, you know, Caroline Kennedy

Just listen.

It's only fair since so many of us had so much fun with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's informal speech during her first five minutes of fame, that we also get some yuks from Princess Caroline Kennedy's, you know, reliance on "you know."

It seems, dontcha know, that New Yorkers are gonna hear this a lot in coming days, at least until Gov. David Paterson decides who's getting Hillary Clinton's about-to-be vacant Senate seat as she steps up to secretary of State in Barack Obama's new Cabinet after the inauguration.

You know you don't need to keep count in this hilarious video. A little buzzer does it for you.

(UPDATE: Here's a must-read update: "Caroline Kennedy is Sarah Palin Lite."

You betcha you'll enjoy it, you know.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Hat Tip to Glenn Reynolds via Howard Mortman.

Joe the traitor now flushing good friend John McCain

Maybe you remember Joe the Wurzelbacher, an Ohio plumber who so sincerely quizzed a campaigning Barack Obama on a Toledo cul-de-sac that his videotaped answers about the Democrat's damaging "tax cuts" attracted the opportunistic eye of Republican John McCain's aides.

Obama, apparently thinking Joe was genuinely concerned about the tax cuts' effect on his professed dream to someday own a small plumbing business, provided a full answer that included mention of redistributing wealth.

The GOP senator promptly took the occasion of the next debate to make Joseph an instant national celebrity as the ultimate regular guy (who's about 6-2, bald and a little behind in some taxes), opining on tax policies, etc., who'd be hurt by Obama's plan.

And McCain invited him to ride the campaign bus, apparently thinking Joe was genuinely concerned about the tax cuts' effect on his professed dream to someday own a small plumbing business.

And Joe got to meet Sarah Palin and speak at rallies to large cheering crowds and be interviewed lots of times like a real celeb. Perhaps that was a lot more entertaining than fixing plugged toilets. (And you don't need a license to do it.)

Joe seemed to really like the campaign. He said he did anyway. But now Joe's writing a book, or maybe a book's being written with Joe's name on it, that Joe says is going to analyze the 2008 campaign and his role in it. About time too.

So Joe's out promoting himself and the unfinished book already on Glenn Beck's radio show (audio tape below).  Don't tell Joe but, frankly, he's museum-grade history as far as 2008 politics are concerned.

But he's still out there talking. Joe admits he's a little more educated than other people about politics. So his insights are worth more. He finds Palin to be "the real deal."

But Joe says after talking with McCain in depth on the bus and quizzing him in depth about the bailouts that Joe doesn't like and neither does McCain if they've got pork though he voted for it, which Joe apparently doesn't like. Joe says he was "appalled" at some of the things he saw in politics.

Joe promises the Democrats are really gonna like what he has to say about the Arizona senator they already beat. But Glenn didn't tell him that part.

Joe said he felt dirty after being on the bus with politicians and wanted to get off. Glenn asks the obvious question: So why didn't you?

Joe thinks a second to find an answer, which Democrats won't like.

(Hat Tips to old pal Jimmy Orr over at the refreshing VoteBlog and the always insightful LittleGreenFootballs.)

The interview tape is available for bipartisan listening below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: The Blade via Associated Press 

'Joe the Plumber' is a no-show at a McCain Ohio rally

Although it might seem like Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is everywhere these days, he wasn't at John MCain's rally this morning in the small town of Defiance, Ohio.

Except that nobody told the Republican presidential nominee that.

And so, in the midst of his speech, McCain called out to Wurzelbacher, as he often does on the campaign trail.

“Joe’s with us today," McCain told an audience of about 6,000 people. "Joe where are you? Where is Joe? Is Joe with us today?” he asked.

When Joe failed to appear, an awkward silence settled over the crowd.

Then McCain, politician that he is, made lemonade out of lemons. "All right," he told the crowd. "Well, you’re all Joe the Plumbers, so all of you stand up!" 

-- Kate Linthicum

Probably Joe was off reading the latest Ticket item, which you can now register for automatic alerts to your cellphone by going here.

Truth-squadding Sarah Palin on the Starbucks coffee cup quote

At her Carson, Calif. rally Saturday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was introduced by Shelly Mandell, president of the National Organization for Women's Los Angeles chapter, who acknowledged that she was a lifelong Democrat.

“It is an honor to call her a sister,” said Mandell, who emphasized that she was there as a private citizen, not as a representative of NOW. “America, this is what a feminist looks like.” 

When she mentioned the D-word, Mandell got a chorus of boos.

Palin began her speech by mentioning that one can be progressive and conservative, then quoted, or slightly misquoted, a well-known Democratic woman.

“It’s like kind of providential yesterday what happened to me,” Palin said. “I am reading on my Starbucks mocha cup the quote of the day. You’ll never believe what the quote was! It was Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state and U.N. ambassador, and Madeleine has as her quote of the day for Starbucks — now she said it, I didn’t say it — ‘There is a place in hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.’ OK now, thank you so much for receiving that well, I didn’t know how that was gonna go over. And now California, let’s see what a comment like I just made, let’s see what it will be turned into . . . newspaper.”

Well, how about the blog instead of the newspaper?

Anyway, turns out, according to CBS News’ Scott Conroy, that Palin got the quote slightly wrong. Albright actually said, “There is a place in hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.”

So can Palin’s tweak be construed as changing the meaning of the quote?

Some certainly think so.

—Robin Abcarian

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