I thought Joe Biden's closing remarks today at Dr. Rice's confirmation today were really good. I like Biden because he can be harshly critical without being confrontational, a skill that Barbara Boxer and John Kerry don't seem to have mastered yet. Biden can list a million things that someone did wrong, and even get all riled up, but he never seems to take any of it too personally.
I suppose I can understand the anger on the part of Kerry and Boxer, it is true that Rice has played a major role in some pretty terrible debacles, but still, I just question the political expediency of the whole 'witch hunt' approach to confirmation hearings. Why alienate yourself from the next Secretary of State before she has even unpacked her office supplies?
Anyway, since Biden's speech was so good I put it up on my site as an mp3. It's about 15 minutes long and it covers a lot of ground, from Iraq to neoconservatives to the plummeting dollar, with a lengthy football metaphor that even mentions the 'nickel defence.' And it's all delivered in Joe's patented "get your head in the game, kiddo" tone of voice. What's not to love?
(Also, just so you have a frame of reference, he refers a lot to how the Bush administration has been consistently overrepresenting the number of "trained" Iragi security forced there are. Rice says it's around 120,000; Biden says he's been to Iraq 3 times and talked to military people who say it's around 4,000.)
(note: it takes a while for the track to download after you click the links, but it will work eventually)
To listen to the speech click here.
And if listening to a 15 minute speech sounds too boring for you, I also made a version of the speech with lively music in the background.
update: For people looking for a more melancholy version of the Biden speech, I just added an Adagio for Strings version. Big ups Samuel Barber.
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