Say it ain’t so, Joe

Joe Biden is one of the more thoughtful members of the U.S. Senate. Often I’ll disagree with him, as I do about his new Iraq proposal, but his ideas are always worth listening to. As for his verbosity, I tend to agree with David Brooks that it is born out of intellectual curiosity not pomposity. ...

Joe Biden is one of the more thoughtful members of the U.S. Senate. Often I’ll disagree with him, as I do about his new Iraq proposal, but his ideas are always worth listening to. As for his verbosity, I tend to agree with David Brooks that it is born out of intellectual curiosity not pomposity.

Joe Biden is one of the more thoughtful members of the U.S. Senate. Often I’ll disagree with him, as I do about his new Iraq proposal, but his ideas are always worth listening to. As for his verbosity, I tend to agree with David Brooks that it is born out of intellectual curiosity not pomposity.

All of which, makes his comments on Hardball, flagged by the Hotline blog, about the Zacarias Moussaoui verdict all the more disappointing: "I think that boy is about to have, as we Catholics say, an epiphany. I think he's about to find how that he may not have gotten the better end of the deal." Matthews then asks, “Do you think he'll survive for long in prison, Senator?" To which, Biden responds “I don't want to answer that because I'll get 6,000 letters saying I'm encouraging something bad happening to him. I think it's not going to be an easy road for him.” Biden should leave this kind of crass populism to lesser men. Joseph Biden is better than this.

James Forsyth is assistant editor at Foreign Policy.

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