The pretzeled defense of Joe Biden
SAN DIEGO -- Let's cool it with the criticism of Joe Biden.
But let's turn up the heat on his defenders with their doubletalk and double standards about how men treat women.
The 76-year-old former vice president may simply be a throwback to a bygone era in politics when voter outreach meant literally reaching out to touch voters. The Washington Post has generously described Biden as having an "affectionate, physical style."
Often, the touching is meant to comfort. One of Biden's best qualities is something that Donald Trump lacks: empathy. The Democrat knows suffering. He lost his first wife and a young daughter in a tragic car accident and his adult son to brain cancer. Life has tried -- more than once -- to break this man. Yet he's still standing. That is admirable.
But there is not much to admire with Biden's defenders. The way they're bending over backward, and frontward, to justify behavior that they, not long ago, told us was unjustifiable has been sloppy and transparent. They're fueling public cynicism and hurting their cause. Why should anyone believe them ever again?
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," columnist Mike Barnicle criticized the "media feeding frenzy" now that at least a half-dozen women are complaining that Biden acted improperly toward them.
Really? Pull the tape from last fall's confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, and you'll see how pundits on that same show fed off the frenzy of accusations of sexual impropriety by the Republican Supreme Court nominee.
Some will point out that Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault, and that this makes a big difference. But the national conversation sparked by the hearings went in all directions and included behavior that fell short of outright assault but was still inappropriate.
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri -- who is now an MSNBC contributor -- also gave Biden a pass. She claimed that his actions were "not sexual" and insisted that he "never did this from a bad place, always from a good place." McCaskill even took a swipe at Biden's accusers, implying that they were a tad sensitive about their personal space.
The women of ABC's "The View" also vouched for Biden last week. They said that the timing was suspicious, that his accusers should have spoken up long ago, that his behavior "doesn't rise to the level" of #MeToo allegations, and that Biden shouldn't stop being himself.
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