« Pres. Obama - Stop funding the Promotion of Marriage and Use the money more Wisely | coonsey's Blog | Cavuto of Fox: "Bush Recovery"? »
Arianna: Joe Biden should resign?
Arianna Huffington wants Vice President Joe Biden to resign his position so that he can be the true opposition to the war in Afghanistan.
Sorry Arianna, you left out one very important fact. I believe that if VP Joe Biden were to resign that would mean Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would become Vice President. Nope, nada, not going to happen!
Joe Biden met with CENTCOM chief Gen. David Petraeus this morning to talk about Afghanistan -- an issue that has pushed the vice president into the spotlight, landing him on the cover of the latest Newsweek.
I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention, and do what generations to come will always be grateful for: resign....
Obama may be no drama, but Biden loves drama. And what could more dramatic than resigning the vice presidency on principle? And what principle could be more honorable than refusing to go along with a policy of unnecessarily risking American blood and treasure -- and America's national security?
Sorry Arianna, you left out one very important fact. I believe that if VP Joe Biden were to resign that would mean Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would become Vice President. Nope, nada, not going to happen!
Advertisement
Why should not all thirty senators who sign on to public funding of health care resign.
SHE IS NUTS
October 14, 2009 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I noticed that the people criticizing Arianna don't like to point out that she said Biden should resign if Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan.
They make it seem as if she told him to quit today, period.
October 14, 2009 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Either way, the suggestion was asinine. There is zero upside. Why ever would it be a good idea to take someone who's talking sense away of an office where he has input into every principal's meeting to instead essentially play Howard Dean ... simply because he lost a single policy debate? Great thinking!
Besides, her premise was completely undermined by the fact that Biden's advice has been articulated in the public sphere as the debate is occurring. The reasoning she uses is that we would have been better off had republicans in disagreement with Bush spoken up (or stepped down in her frame, which in her defense, would be required for a republican who wanted to voice a public position that was not in harmony with the administration). Biden doesn't *have* to step down to make his opinion known, we already know it. Just as we know he's going to back up the president if his advice doesn't carry the debate and be just as candid next time a topic comes up.
The piece was based on poorly grounded logic and designed to be incendiary.
October 15, 2009 1:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
?I felt the same? when I read that? Doesn't make any sense to me.
He is the VP and not the pres. He does not get to make the decision here. However, I am glad he is expressing his views and I am sure the president is considering all points of view because how he handles this will be part of his legacy. Why wouldn't we want vice president Biden right there expressing his views as he is? How would leaving office be helpful in any way?
October 14, 2009 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pelosi does not take over for Biden. Pelosi takes over for Obama if both he and Biden are unavailable to serve...if Biden didn't have time to name a new VP, after taking over for Obama.
A replacement VP is chosen by POTUS, and confirmed by Senate. See Gerald Ford taking over Spiro Agnew's spot.
October 15, 2009 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good for you Kev. Sometimes I need to be reminded about how things actually work.
Anyway, I like Uncle Joe. hahahaha
October 15, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Arianna is kind of the Maureen Dowd of the blog-o-spheres. I like her site though; Linkins, Stein, and Froomkin are all top notch.
October 15, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I completely understand her points, I just didn't like the possible consequences of this action.
We had people like Colin Powell sitting back disagreeing with Bush's actions with respects to the war in Iraq behind closed doors. Instead of coming out to the American people and telling us that we were being manipulated. We also had people like Tom Ridge, after the fact, come out and basically accuse Bush of using terror alerts for political gain.
Arianna is just hoping that if there is anybody in this admin that is seeing something going wrong or illegal -- they would resign and inform the American people. After all, America comes before political party -- doesn't it?
October 15, 2009 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Arianna is the designated leftie-blog spokesperson now, and I think that's too bad. I saw her on This Week fairly preening when she called for Charlie Rangel to step down from his chairmanship of Ways and Means; she made googley eyes at George Will. She's busy carving out some new identity for herself; let's see where it goes.
Her site is so popular and makes so much money that she is able to hire scads of employees. One of the big draws is her Entertainment section, cleavage and bums and fashion and whatnot. But she can afford to get breaking news very early. I knock myself on the head every morning I click on Huffpo first!
October 15, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Biden is opposed to a troop increase, but not opposed "to the war in Afghanistan", at least according to the NYT yesterday. They cite him as declaring that we must not abandon Afghanistan, and that we should maintain troop strength at current levels, but beef up training of Afghan security forces, as well as use drone attacks and other measures to target Al Qaeda.
October 15, 2009 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a link to the NYT article -
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/world/14biden.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=biden+AND+afghanistan&st=nyt
October 15, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Huffington makes a very good point in that essay. Her idea of having Biden resign would certainly make the point clear but just making the point publicly would achieve the same result.
It is not correct, as mentioned above, that the House Speaker would become Vice-President. There is a procedure for filling the office if vacated that involved Congressional approval of a nominee designated by the President. That is the process by which Rockefeller became Ford's VP.
October 15, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I should have also added that I don't think anyone, including Huffington, thinks there's any chance Biden would even consider resigning. Still, her point was a good one albeit not very realistic.
October 15, 2009 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
She is misguided and confused. One of the fundamental reasons that Joe is in the position he is in is that in case of an Obama tragedy, Joe is a trusted person next in line for POTUS.
October 15, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Arianna is hopeful that our contribution to the madness in Afghanistan will trend downward rather than upward.
Her article made the point that being a team player is not the summum bonum of public service. She cited Colin Powell as an example. His behavior was egregious, of course, but it's always the extreme examples that stick in the mind.
It's extremely unlikely that she expects her article to be a goad that triggers Biden to resign. It much more likely she intended it as counterpoint to the pundits out there urging McChrystal to resign if Obama doesn't cave to his demand for tens of thousands more U.S. troops.
She made her point, and made it well.
October 15, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yuh, I heard it, and I'm like, Arianna! Maybe nevertheless TIME TO SWITCH TO *DECAF,* eh?
October 15, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Has HuffPo jumped the shark?
October 15, 2009 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
You kidding? I believe the current attraction is an orangutan and Paris Hilton tandem-bungeeing into a live shark from a helicopter to pull a VW full of clowns from its stomach.
October 15, 2009 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink