Joe "the mouth"?

Senator and likely presidential candidate Joe Biden was interviewed by Meet the Press host Tim Russert on Sunday. When asked about diplomacy in Iran, here's part of what he said:

SEN. BIDEN: No, we shouldn’t undertake military action now. It should be the absolute last resort. And one of the things that—I’ve gotten all the briefings, as most of the people in my position have, and there is no imminent threat at this point. There is a looming threat, there is a threat of a capacity to be able to demonstrate a real threat to the United States and our allies down the road, but there’s nothing imminent at this point.

Does "I've gotten all the briefings" mean "intelligence briefings"? Surely he knows better, but perhaps not, since he follows with this:

SEN. BIDEN: You don’t except try to build confidence by the way—look, as I understand it—and you usually have better sources than I do, and I’m not being facetious—but as I understand it, this was a bit of a knock-down, drag-out fight between Cheney and, and Condoleezza Rice, and Rice won this round as to how to proceed with regard to Iraq.

State Department gossip, perhaps? Sounds familiar.

Unless the adminstration wanted him to blubber this to send Tehran a message, it seems hard to defend in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic challenge involing nukes. In my mind it's further evidence he has no business being a candidate for president, especially with double-talk like this on the record.

One more thing. Check out this interesting exchange:

MR. RUSSERT: But is the Iraq war a dilemma for her within the Democratic Party?

SEN. BIDEN: I don’t know. Look, I think the, I think the Democratic Party understands Mrs. Clinton’s—Senator Clinton’s instincts that are consistent with theirs. I will be surprised if the vote on the war in Iraq becomes the defining issue in a Democratic nominating process.

"Mrs." Clinton's refusal to reverse her Iraq War decision at this late date can go two ways. If Iraq's government improves and things settle down, which includes finding a way to deal with Tehran, Hillary will easily wipe candidates like Biden and Kerry right off the board. However, if Iraq falls into worse chaos and the government collapses, she'll have some big-time splainin to do.

The dems have nothing else. Iraq simply has to be the issue, since all the other ones are pretty weak. The economy is decent, unemployment is low, and their culture of corruption campaign has been derailed by the likes of Congressman Jefferson. The only people keeping track of the Plame/Libby story are the fringes of both parties and the MSM, whose votes won't change.