Tee hee hee. I love it when the humorless Right Wing is WAY off base.

[beachmom]

newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/09/22/biden-misleads-al-qaeda-forced-his-helicopter-down-afghanistan-w

(add http://www.)

Basically, the attack is because Biden recounted the story of the helicoptor that went down in a snow storm in Afghanistan -- Biden was talking about how the terrorists are in Afghanistan and Pakistan. So this whole attack is that Biden is "seeming" to say they were attacked by al Qaeda. Ah, nice imagination, but Biden said no such thing seemingly or not. So to further the case against Biden, the normally anti-Kerry Newsbusters, which normally shows him ZERO respect, suddenly elevates Kerry to a higher stature in order to knock down Biden. Sorry, this just made me giggle:

And lastly, we get a hint in this tale of the disdain... and if not disdain, then at least the discounting of the man... that others in the Senate feel for Joe Biden. Look at how John Kerry told the tale of the helicopter going down:

"The weather closed in on us," the Associated Press quoted Kerry as saying. "It went pretty blind, pretty fast and we were around some pretty dangerous ridges. So the pilot exercised his judgment that we were better off putting down there, and we all agreed."

"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to do it." he said. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."


Now, on that helicopter was Senator Chuck Hagel (R- NE), Kerry (D- MA), Biden (D-CT), and a three star general. Yet, Kerry made a joke about Biden snowball fighting with the Taliban. Biden is the subject of ridicule. Does this just not show how little Kerry thinks of Biden? It has been reported that Biden is generally thought of as a fool and blowhard in the Senate, and this offhanded treatment by someone like Kerry really says a lot about Biden's standing among other Senators. If Biden was well respected, Kerry would never have made Biden the butt of jokes.

Great choice, there, Barack.

I mean, GEEZ -- it was clearly a statement akin to joshing a friend he cares about. The whole incident freaked a lot of us out at the time, and I just remember being reassured by Kerry's sense of humor -- he used the funny story to diffuse the situation quickly, and it worked. No disdain, Thou Newsbuster Dude -- more joking around about a buddy.

[JI7]

1. they sound really stupid

imagine telling other people that Biden is not even popular among other Senators and then using what Kerry said about snowball fighting the Taliban as an example.

[karynnj]

2. That is really silly

Not only that, quoting Kerry shows two other things:

1) This was a dangerous moment, due to the dangerous area they few to doing the oversight that they were suppose to do This was not a "John McCain/Joe Leiberman" photo op in the green zone. Joe Biden would not have been with Hagel, Kerry and the 3 star general if he were a "Senate blowhard". These 3 men were doing a serious job.

2) Kerry is not stiff and boring - he is funny, even shortly after facing enormous danger. I know all of us were happy to hear Kerry's joke - and the Biden group thought it as funny as we did.

[ginnyinWI]

8. I can just picture the scene.

If I'm not mistaken, Biden is the only one of the three who is not a combat veteran. So Kerry and Hagel joking that they would send HIM out to fight the Taliban with snowballs is even funnier! Maybe JK picked up on a little extra nervousness in Biden and sought to kid him out of it. In that case, God bless him.

It's truly reaching to interpret it as anything more than a little fun. But I guess only the faithful listen to sources like that anyway so little harm is done.

[Luftmensch067]

3. My favorite clueless comment

on this post was the one that said RANGEL was on the plane instead of Hagel!

[Democrafty]

4. Good catch!

I'll admit to having skimmed the article and missed that - but I agree, why would Rep. Rangel have been on that helicopter???

[beachmom]

5. The AP sucks:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ghVzyrK-5x2DCNI3gnizsdGKXOeAD93I4I400

I am sorry, but if you read through the article, it only seems to be saying that Biden was inartful at moments, but never lied. I mean, as I have mentioned before, Kerry made those jokes to lighten things up. It was a bit hairy for a little while.

[karynnj]

6. That really is a hit piece

I think that Wade did an excellent job on the helicopter story - anyone who thinks there are clear boundaries of taliban and no-taliban there is crazy. Also it was clear that Kerry's version was the most understated, where he likely minimized the danger, probably to make people less worried and to compliment the troops who did a great job keeping them safe. He spoke of having planes (which I guess were better able to fly in snow than the helicopters above them), making it clear that they weren't sitting there defenseless. But, this was clearly an area that the Senators would not have been approved to visit on the ground.

The Iraq comment was not Bosnia - there was NO attack in Bosnia and the welcome ceremony did take place. Iraq was extremely dangerous and he was clearly not completely save. I don't know the full context of what he said - but they need to get this out. (By the way, Stephanie Cutter was blind sided on this by David Gregory on Hardball, where he quoted from the NYT, and seemed very unprepared.)

"Senator Biden, you told me once that, shortly before the 2004 election, you advised John Kerry to respond harshly to a new Osama bin Laden videotape. You described the conversation this way: “I’m on the phone, I e-mail, I say, ‘John, please, say three things’: ‘How dare bin Laden speak of our president this way.’ No. 2, ‘I know how to deal with preventing another 9/11.’ No. 3, ‘Kill him.’” You then threw up your hands in disgust and said of Senator Kerry, “He didn’t make any of it. Let’s get it straight. None of it.”

This story was entertaining, but it wasn’t strictly accurate. It turned out that you did not, in fact, even speak with Senator Kerry until well after he had issued a vigorous denunciation of bin Laden. This episode is one of several in which you have appeared to exaggerate your importance. Recently, you spoke of being “shot at” in Iraq. This, too, turned out to be false. Why should voters trust you, after you have made so many provably embroidered assertions?

— JEFFREY GOLDBERG, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of “Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/opinion/02veepdebatefortheweb.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

The fact is that Biden does embroider stories - we complained about it here in 2005. Wade did the best with the coal miner comment, but if it were a joke, he really needs to find a way to clue in even clueless AP writers. He needs to try to avoid adding to this list that they will use against him. The fact though is that he has not come close to the idiotic things Palin, who is kept out of the public has done and Obama is far younger and healthier than McCain. He is an intelligent good guy and he needs to control the storytelling, that made him "folksy".

[sandnsea]

7. I thought it mean Biden is scrappy

Not anything disrespectful. What a bunch of goofs.