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Too 'civil'? What if Joe Biden knows what he's doing?

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Critics of Joe Biden are falling over themselves in a rush to castigate the former vice president -- and current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination -- for his latest so-called "gaffe." Some of them are even Democrats.

His sin: He waxed nostalgic, as many of us old men do, at a New York fundraiser last week about a time when the opposing parties went after each other tooth and nail, as Washington politicians do, but unlike with today's polarized slugfests and gridlock, they also managed to find areas of compromise and pass serious legislation.

He might have gotten away with those heartwarming memories had he not chosen such a startling example of opposing sides coming together: He recalled working with two of the most openly racist, mossiest mossback Southern segregationists of the past century: the late Democratic Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia.

"He never called me 'boy,' he always called me 'son,' " Biden warmly said of Eastland, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden joined the body in 1973. And Talmadge, said Biden, was "one of the meanest guys I ever knew."

Nevertheless, Biden continued: "At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you're the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore."

That's unfortunately true, as some of Biden's Democratic opponents immediately demonstrated by demanding his apology for insensitivity -- an apology that Biden said they were not going to get.

 

California Sen. Kamala Harris scorched Biden for trying "to coddle the reputations of segregationists." An equally indignant New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker roared that "Biden's relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people, and for everyone."

As an African American who is old enough to remember some of the dirty work of the "segs," as Congress' stalwart segregationists were called in those bad old days, I appreciate Booker's and Harris' concerns.

But I also have to raise an important question: What if Biden knows what he's doing?

In Washington, as journalist Michael Kinsley famously declared, a gaffe is when somebody tells the truth. Biden was telling an unfortunate truth about today's political landscape, as his bellicose opponents immediately demonstrated.

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(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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