THE COUNTERFEIT OPPOSITION: David Podvin reminds you of all you need to know about the next ambitious clone of John Kerry. Read the whole thing at Clueless Joe:

Delaware Senator Joseph Biden has declared his intention to seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. For decades, the senator has been the prototypical establishment Democrat, a weak man who possesses a liberal façade in lieu of liberal principles. By offering to be its standard bearer, Biden is presenting his party with the opportunity to self-destruct.

Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court because Joe Biden is a coward. ...

Biden justified his vote to authorize conquering Iraq by citing Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. The senator also warned of the link between Hussein and al Qaida. When these pretenses were debunked, Biden dismissed the relevance of the lies and effusively praised George W. Bush for defying anti-war critics.

Following the revelations of systematic torture at Abu Ghraib, Biden defended Bush by saying that the level of abuse was being grossly exaggerated. He emphasized that American torture is significantly more humane than the torture inflicted during the Hussein regime. He lauded Alberto Gonzales, the author of the administration memo that posited torturing prisoners is permissible under the Geneva Conventions. ...

Biden defended Bush’s authoritarian USA Patriot Act against criticism from liberals, falsely declaring that the legislation safeguarded individual liberties. He has consistently voted to help Bush stock the federal judiciary with extremists like D. Brooks Smith, a right wing jurist who disputes the relevance and constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act. ...

Rather than drawing clear distinctions between the parties, Biden blurs the divide. The senator insists on referring to conservative failures as “our” failures while he futilely pursues a unilateral end to partisanship. He values “unity” over principle, as demonstrated when he said John McCain should be the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee even though McCain is more conservative than Zell Miller. And while Biden is highly intolerant of flaws in his Democratic allies, he does not apply similar harsh standards to Republicans.

May I venture to predict that the Senator from Delaware, with his head being turned by praise as "responsible" and "statesmanlike" whenever he attacks other Democrats or raises trivial nitpicks instead of principled moral condemnations of the lying torturers and murderers on the other side, never liked this old poem. I'm sure he would have found it too uncompromising, and that woundn't be prudent:

Am I a spy in the land of the living,
that I should deliver men to Death?
--Edna St. Vincent Millay