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| Home Front: Politix |
| 'Senator' Biden's trip raises concerns |
| 2009-01-08 |
| Joe Biden has always had a flair for doing things differently -- but his upcoming trip to South Asia may set a new standard. The vice president-elect will be traveling to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. But he won't really be traveling as the vice president-elect -- he'll be traveling as the chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Only he'll be resigning from the Senate in a few weeks. Even though he was sworn in Tuesday for his seventh term. Got that? Many foreign policy observers don't, raising the concern that officials in the countries on Biden's itinerary may hold to the quaint notion that the vice president-elect is the vice president-elect and that Biden will be sending not-very-subtle signals about U.S. policy in the Obama administration -- even though George W. Bush is still in office. Biden first ran the South Asia trip idea by Bush administration officials several weeks ago, said Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "We discussed the trip and reviewed it in advance with them," Johndroe said. "We are facilitating the trip administratively where necessary." But that didn't stop some serious eye-rolling by others on the Bush team. "It's certainly unique," quipped a senior Bush administration official. "And I'll just leave it at that." Biden described the nature of his trip to reporters Tuesday after his swearing-in ceremony. "I'm going to come back and report where I think things stand in each of those countries now," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 If only Slow Joe were afoot. But they'll probably give him a plane to use... |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-01-08 16:15 |
| #1 Strange things are afoot. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2009-01-08 10:44 |