It was March 2002, threats of a U.S. invasion of Iraq were becoming more serious as the Bush Administration sought any possible hook to invade Iraq.  Public sentiment was behind doing whatever it took to make the Nation more safe in the wake of 9/11, but while war authority was granted overwhelmingly by Congress, one thousand miles away in an Illinois state senator’s office cries of foul raged as loud as a tree falling in the woods with nobody around to hear.  His war disapproval followed that state senator into the U.S. Senate as his Majority Leader declared the war lost.  This new senator from Illinois proudly opposed the Surge being proposed by John McCain and others.  And while this expression of objection was amplified in hindsight during the 2008 presidential race at a politically opportunistic moment in time where comparative politics rang clearly with American voters.  To use the words this President likes to employ at every opportunity, “let me be clear,” he has opposed this war from the beginning, he has declared loss via his support of his Majority Leader, he campaigned on the need to surrender and withdraw, and he has made no qualms about the mistake that this war was from the beginning. 

Now that the context for this post has been set, please observe the following quote by Vice President Joe Biden on Larry King last week: 

 I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government. 

I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.

Could somebody please explain again to me why Vice President Quayle was shredded for a simple misspelling of a word?  Well, at least the White House surely will correct this mistake.  Makes one recall the famous line from the movie “Animal House” when John Belushi asks “was it over when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor?”  to which his fraternity brothers reply to each other, “Germans?”  “Forget it, he’s rolling.”  Biden’s comment is utterly outrageous.  After all, this administration campaigned against this war.  The folks within its ranks would never want to take credit for it.  Let’s listen in to White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs as hopefully he denounces the VP’s comment: 

REPORTER:  Robert, the Vice President last night said that Iraq could end up being one of the President's great achievements. Given that the Vice President was in favor of a partial partition of the country and the President opposed the surge that helped stabilize it, how is that one of the President's great achievements?

MR. GIBBS: Well, putting what was broken back together and getting our troops home, which we intend to do in August of this year.

REPORTER:  But the Status of Forces Agreement to bring troops home was signed before the President took office.

MR. GIBBS:  Something that -- something that I think the political pressure that the President, as a then-candidate, helped to bring about.

Look, I think that we will long debate Iraq. We will long debate whether at a very important moment in our efforts to root out terrorism particularly in Afghanistan and on that border region with Pakistan, whether we took our eye off the ball. 

I think historians will debate that long after we're gone. I think they will come likely to the conclusion that no single event took our eye off of what needed to be done in order to -- in order to occupy a country that, until we got there, didn’t have a single member of al Qaeda.

So, look, obviously -- look, the Vice President has been deeply involved in fixing the political process there so that elections can be held and so that our troops can come home as scheduled this summer.

John McCain risked his entire presidential hopes on The Surge because he knew it was the right thing to do at the right moment.  He based that judgment on decades of experience and was quoted as saying “I would rather lose an election than a war.”  Meanwhile, this President (then candidate) pounded away on President Bush and the U.S. involvement in Iraq taking every opportunity to pile on as things on the ground looked bleak.  For this Vice President now to in any way take credit for the success by what I believe to be the next greatest generation of troops serving in Iraq is disingenuous, dishonorable, politically opportune, and disgraceful. 

What the White House should have done is call this statement what it was, ‘moronic,’ and moved on to the next topic. 

Ken has more than 13 years of legislative policy, legal, and communications experience. As General Counsel and head of Nahigian Strategies, LLC’s Legislative and Government Affairs practice, Ken provides an expertise on a wide range of issues pertaining to federal trade, consumer privacy and protection, transportation security, automotive safety, healthcare, and product safety.