If you have not been in a coma, you're probably aware that House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton (R-TX) made a pretty stupid apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward - you know, a couple days before Hayward went yachting off the Isle of Wight.
What you may not have heard was Joe Biden's response:
What we have here are two comments - one scripted and stupid, the other unscripted and one of the best two-sentence descriptions I've ever heard on the role of government.
Biden has been known as a gaffe king in the US Senate for over three decades. In the 1984 Presidential Election, Biden was found to have been plagiarizing a speech. Maybe this is why Biden's decided it's better for him to just shoot from the hip and let the chips fall, rather than to carefully script his remarks.
Biden's statement to President Obama on the passage of healthcare reform will go down in my memory as one of the most succinct, heartfelt, and true things I've heard in a profession known for message-testing and cover-your-tail platitudinous speech.
"This is a big fucking deal!"
Vice President Biden was right.
Last week, Joe Barton said what he was truly thinking, in carefully-scripted, pre-written remarks.
In reply, Joe Biden said what he thought, in off-the-cuff, extemporaneous remarks that reflect a lifetime of service to others and a clear understanding of what the US Congress is supposed to be about.
Well since you know I never say what's on my mind ... uh ... I probably shouldn't comment on Mr. Barton's comment.
He thought for a moment, and then, egged on by Robert Gibbs and the White House press corps, he continued:
They're encouraging me, what can I say?
Look... look.
Press (off camera): How big of a deal was it?
Biden: Thank God my mother wasn't around.
Look guys, I ... I ... I find it incredibly insensitive. Incredibly out of touch.
The reason why I got involved in politics - the reason why I ran, the reason the President got involved, is the one primary role for government is to protect people who are being taken advantage of, to protect people who are in extreme straits and not able to take care of the circumstances themselves.
Biden then goes on to express some of the same feelings I have as the parent of a daughter who went off to school in New Orleans (only mine went to Loyola after Katrina....):
I've been down in the Bayou area off and on for the last 36 years. My daughter went down to Tulane. I was worried she was not going to come home. I think I know the area relatively well as an outsider. There is an entire way of life in jeopardy. This is just not about jobs. This is just not about whether or not the waterfowl is polluted and you can't fish. This is an entire way of life that's in jeopardy.
Biden then takes dead aim at the total impropriety and outrageous nature of Barton's prepared remarks.
And to sit there and say that we're being - in effect, as I understood the statement - that he was ashamed we're being tough on an oil company who caused the problem... I mean... I just think that it's pretty important for the people of Louisiana all the way through Florida and even his home state of Texas - that people disassociate themselves from that.
That's not the role - there's no "shakedown".
It's insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something they caused. And I find it outrageous to suggest that if in fact we insisted that BP demonstrate their preparedness to set aside billions of dollars - in this case $20 billion - to take care of the immediate needs of people who are drowning.
These guys don't have deep pockets - the guy who runs the local marina ... the guy who has one shrimping boat ... the guy who runs the local business. He can't afford to lose 10, 12, 15, $30,000 a month.
And so the thing the President did - and I was so proud if him - is when we had the meeting with BP ... and they were cooperative in the meeting. They were cooperative. He said, "Look what I want you to do is take care of those now who, if they don't get help now, are going to be under ... gone."
Gone.
And I might add that this fund is not a ceiling. And people can go back to it as many times as they can prove that they have been damaged and they need help. And the cleanup costs are all BP's costs, separate, apart, and above that $20 billion.
What is wrong with that?
How is that a shakedown?
I mean, I just... I don't know, I find it pretty astounding, the comment.
I'm glad it's Vice President Biden and not Vice President Palin.
And for what it's worth, Biden is coming to my city of Nashville in a few weeks for a major Tennessee Democratic Party fundraising event. Tickets are $50 or $100 and you're welcome to come and hang out.
We're a little over a month from $2 billion of flood damage (and more in lost wages). And a note to Boehner, Pence, and Cantor: Unlike the Gulf oil spill, this truly was a natural disaster.