TheDC Morning: Biden & Newt — A Love Story

Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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1.) Biden & Newt: A Love Story — In 2005, Joe Biden swooned over Newt Gingrich, reports TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein (ME!):

“While Vice President Joe Biden has landed a few jabs on Newt Gingrich during his run for the White House, there was a time when Biden had nothing but effusive praise for the increasingly irrelevant White House contender. During a 2005 hearing on United Nations reform, then-Sen. Biden praised the ‘power’ of Gingrich’s ‘ideas’ and ‘persuasion’ and even recommended that President George W. Bush select the former House Speaker as his United Nations ambassador.”

While the love affair has been interrupted by a political campaign that has pitted the two paramours on opposite sides, let us hope when the tensions cool down and the election battle ends, these two can once again rebuild their special relationship — a relationship surely built on a shared love of pontificating.

2.) Spectacular Specter  — Arlen Specter just may have a spectacular anger management problem. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports on the former senator’s radio break down:

“[O]n Jason Lewis’ nationally syndicated show Friday, Specter threw something of a tantrum after having to sit through two commercial breaks. ‘Jason, I have one final comment,’ Specter said. ‘I gave you 10 minutes. You’ve been over every subject except for my book. I listened to two rounds of your commercials. I think it’s insulting. I’ve done a lot of interviews in the course of the past 30 years and you are absolutely insulting.'”

And how was this man voted among the meanest members of Congress? It just doesn’t make any sense.

3.) Chairman Tom doesn’t like the GOP — New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, who not-too-long-ago penned a column imagining all the good that could be accomplished if America could just be a tyranny like China for a day, thinks the GOP is a radical party:

“On Sunday’s ‘Meet the Press’ on NBC, New York Times columnist Thomas Freidman interpreted that data to mean that the Republican Party has become radicalized … ‘I think it is the fact that in my view the Republican Party is no longer a conservative party. It’s become a radical party on a lot of these key issues.'”

Not to defend the GOP, but not sure the Republicans have yet come out in support of political autocracy in any shape or form, even for a day. So000, about being radical …

4.) SuperPaul to save the day? Ron Paul says he is staying in the presidential race because some delegates may yet swing his way and, perhaps more importantly, he wants to save the Republican Party, reports TheDC’s Jeff Poor:

“On CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday, Paul explained his reasons for continuing his campaign, saying he thinks some undecided delegates will come out in his favor. He also touted his support on his pet issues. ‘You know, the conventional wisdom is there’s no guarantee,’ Paul said. ‘And those you were talking earlier on about Romney being the candidate, but that’s the conventional wisdom and I would admit that, but, no, the votes haven’t been counted … The truth is, I’m trying to save the Republican Party from themselves…”

Judging by how he is performing in the primaries thus far, it doesn’t seem like the GOP is so much interested in being saved — at least not by Ron Paul.

5.) Poll of the Day: Scott Brown has small lead over Elizabeth WarrenBoston Globe poll of Massachusetts Senate race: Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown registers 37% among likely voters while Democratic Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren attracts 35%. Twenty-six percent said they were undecided. The poll has a 4.2% margin of error.

6.) Tweet of Yesterday  —  NoahPollak: Mazal tov @PeterBeinart. After an epic 2-week media blitz, your book isn’t even #1 in the *Israel* section of Amazon.

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Jamie Weinstein