Biden's New Role: Good Cop

[DogPoundPup]

Source: CBS News

A few days before the election, a Democratic strategist privately worried that a Vice-President Joe Biden was destined for a White House career of dissatisfaction and idle-hands mischief.

“You can’t just have a guy like him at loose ends, he’d go crazy,” said a Democratic consultant who knows the affable, bright and mercilessly quotable soon-to-be ex-chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “They need to keep him busy. Nobody over there wants him getting into the Secretary of State’s .”

Harnessing Biden’s considerable talents and containing his flaws will be an ongoing challenge for Obama. But Democratic insiders say the appointment of tough-guy Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff-and the administration’s need to forge a governing coalition that includes some Republicans-has brought Biden’s upcoming role more clearly into focus: He'll play the good cop.

The Democrats’ apparent failure to win the 60 Senate seats necessary to halt a GOP filibuster has created the need for inter-party ambassadors like Biden who are practiced at the art of aisle crossing. In his 36-year Senate career, Biden was never considered a bomb-throwing ideologue, and he still has plenty of chits to cash in with Republicans on the Hill.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/10/politics/politico/main4587230.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4587230

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From story...

“He’s probably got more friends among Senate Republicans than John McCain does, and that’s a huge plus for Barack Obama, who is committed to breaking the partisan roadblock of recent years,” said Biden spokesman David Wade shortly before Election Day.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. You halt a filibuster by making them actually filibuster.

I'm getting really tired of this horseshit.

[Not the Only One]

3. There simply aren't enough Republicans who are so secure in their seats for us to worry.

Snowe and Collins will oppose a filibuster. We can also expect Specter and Lugar and Voinovich to not support one either. I promise there will be no filibusters. Even if Coleman wins, I don't expect him to support one, either.

[Doctor_J]

2. Having Biden & Rahm as sidekicks is going to make Obama's job

easier than it might have been. Biden will be in charge of schmoozing the moderate Repukes like Snowe and Collins, and Rahm will scatter the body parts of of the obstructionists and fascists. This should be productive and fun to watch.