Does Joe Biden have a complex?
Yes, it's pathetic and geeky to admit this, but I've really been enjoying the Alito confirmation hearings. (And that's without even playing the appropriate drinking game.)
On Tuesday, during his first turn at questioning, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) went after Alito on the whole Concerned Alumni of Princeton thing. And, while it was amusing to hear Alito say that he couldn't really recall why he joined the organization or why he listed it on his application for a job in the Justice Department 13 years later, the best part of the exchange, for my money, was the stream-of-consciousness preamble to Biden's remarks.
I haven't gotten my hands on a transcript, so I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist of it was that Princeton in its seriously old school days would not have particularly welcomed either an Italian-American like Alito or an Irish-American like Biden. And Biden pointed out -- repeatedly -- that he did not go to an Ivy League school but instead attended the University of Delaware -- not that there's anything wrong with that.
He seemed to be in danger of going seriously off-message, but he just couldn't help himself.
Because he sent his own kids to Ivy League schools (though his daughter, apparently, went to Penn rather than Princeton), Biden was incredibly well-versed in all the overblown ridiculousness of Ivy politics and went on at great length about the controversies of the 1970's, an era when Princeton was finally coming in to the modern world, doing crazy stuff like admitting women and minorities, though some of the hardcore alums were kicking and screaming all the way.
He seemed incredibly angst-ridden about having sent his kids to such elitist schools and said, at one point, that he didn't think his grandfather would have forgiven such a thing.
"I didn't even like Princeton," he said "I mean, I really didn't like Princeton. I was an Irish Catholic kid who thought it had not changed like you concluded it had."
But today he seemed to change course and said, ""I want to, kind of, set the record straight on Princeton . . .You know, I'd be proud of my daughter at Princeton Graduate School, instead of (University of Pennsylvania) now," he said, quickly adding, "although I am very proud she is at Penn."
He was wearing a Princeton baseball cap when he said this. Like maybe he was still ticked off about not getting in, but, you know, willing to get over it if they would, say, toss him an honorary doctorate or something.
Frankly, it was just sad.
I felt like someone should have just reached over and given him a hug. Because, look, Joe, you're a U.S. Senator now. Possibly even a Presidential contender. It's really OK that you went to a crummy state school for college.
Comments
Of course Biden went off message!
It's why no senator has moved from the Senate to the White House since JFK.
They just don't know how to shut up!
They're a bunch of pompous windbags, Kerry being a perfect example of this.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 12, 2006 12:33 PM
The Senate Judicial Confirmation Hearings are a big joke. It doesn't matter if its a democrat or republican that's seeking confirmation. They are all the same...Much talk, slander and grandstanding for the cameras and interest groups. But for the common person who works 9-5 and has little time to watch tv or even know what's happening in DC. It's all a huge waste of time. If the hearings were truly about truth, substance and finding out of the candidate of truly worthy of the seat on the nation's highest court. It would be more open to the public in terms of how questions are answered.
Posted by: Philip | January 12, 2006 09:01 PM
Senators Kennedy, Biden,
Schumer and Durbin came away
from the Alito hearings much
worse than before. The mud
slinging rebounded back on
them to show the world how
base and undignified they
really are.
-JTM
Posted by: James T. McAllister | January 13, 2006 10:19 AM