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Sen. Joe Biden is the shrillest of the shrill. And who can blame him? Here he is speaking with Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace, who's become much more obnoxious than I remember:
WALLACE: Senator Biden, let's talk about the allies, because John Kerry says that the key difference between what he would do in Iraq and what President Bush has failed to do is he would engage the allies.
I want to play for you two comments that John Kerry made this week, first talking about Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi and then talking about the Saudi government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
KERRY: The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy.
KERRY: As president, I will do what President Bush has not done. I will hold the Saudis accountable.
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WALLACE: Is that how Kerry intends to engage the allies, sir, by insulting them?
BIDEN: Do you think the Saudis are our allies?
WALLACE: Do you not?
BIDEN: I do not think they're our full allies. We're talking about NATO. We're talking about our friends who have the capacity to help somehow. We're talking about people who are real allies, guys who can raise guns and shoot straight and help kill the bad guys with us. Come on.
WALLACE: What about Prime Minister Allawi, who's risking his life and who...
BIDEN: He is risking his life.
WALLACE: If I may just ask the question, sir...
BIDEN: You already did, but go ahead.
WALLACE: Well, no, I didn't get it out.
(LAUGHTER)
... who President Kerry, if he's elected, would have to deal with.
What about Prime Minister Allawi, is he an ally?
BIDEN: I've met with President Allawi — sure, he's an ally. All John Kerry pointed out — look, President Allawi's in a tough spot. He comes over here on the eve of the election. He's put in a position where, what's he going to do? Put a positive face public on it. He did. And God bless him, he did the right thing.
Privately with all of us he let his ministers speak. He said privately, look, the borders are porous. We now have all these international guys, the bad guys, the Al Qaida types in our towns. We're in a position where we have parts that are no-go zone.
And he says, I sure hope — to all of us, to the leadership — I sure hope you actually spend the money now; we need more money spent now. He laid out in detail what he needs and what has not been done for the last 10, 12 months or so since he's been president . . .
Look, this guy's in a tough, tough, tough spot. John Kerry wasn't criticizing him. John Kerry was pointing out — why is it you guys — I mean, here the president of the United States of America stands up there and sends this signal to the entire world that our intelligence community isn't worth a damn, all it does is guess. And you guys say when he says, "Well, he really meant to say estimate," you say, "well, OK."
Kerry says something, you know what he means, and you make it sound like he's indicting Allawi. That's malarkey, pure malarkey. He wasn't indicting Allawi. He was saying, "Level with the American people, Mr. President, for god's sake.
And the last thing I want to make this point: I find the way the opposition is dealing with this is really, really dangerous. They're telling everybody that basically if Kerry becomes president of the United States, he's not going to stick with Iraq . . .
WALLACE: Senator Biden, let me get one last question in here. We've got less than a minute left.
John Kerry says he's going to finish the job in Iraq. Let me ask you specifically, what would he do about Fallujah? Would he send in troops now?
. . . Would he wait until the Iraqi — excuse me, sir. Would he wait until the Iraqi troops are trained? What specifically would he do in these so-called no-go zones?
BIDEN: John Kerry would have listened to his Marines at the time when in fact they said we should have finished the job then. John Kerry will listen to his military on the ground. John Kerry will listen to the people who know, not the politicians in the White House.
WALLACE: Senator Biden, thank you so much. I think you ought to stick to the decaf. You're really keyed up today. Thank you so much.
BIDEN: Well, I tell you, these guys so misrepresent things, it just is disgraceful.