Thursday, July 17, 2008

Senator Biden Joins the Prestigious "Flip-Floppers' Club"!

“We find it a little disingenuous that Sen. Obama is hailing this as a new bold initiative when he has neglected to join his colleagues in the Senate when the opportunities have been there to redirect our forces into Afghanistan. It’s good to see Sen. Obama has finally arrived at the right position, but this can hardly be considered bold leadership.”
Statement issued by Senator Biden's campaign Manager, Luis Navarro - August 2007

Barack Obama is taking a lot of heat over a statement he made on Tuesday saying that he had argued for years that the US lacks the resources to "finish the job" in Afghanistan because of its commitment in Iraq.

Critics lashed out at Obama and pointed out that as chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European affairs, Obama had not even held a single hearing on the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

However, Sen. Joe Biden, an ardent critic of the Bush administration and a champion of the Liberals' "surrender policy" in Iraq, came out in defense of Obama yesterday saying:
"The reason Senator Obama didn’t chair a NATO and Afghanistan subcommittee hearing is because I did, as Chairman of the Committee.... When it comes to the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, we hold those hearings at the full committee level."
And on Thursday Biden stated:
"On the particular issue of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, We have held three Full Committee hearings in the last 22 months".
However, Obama's detractors were quick to point out that Obama did not attend two of those three hearings -- and for the third meeting, on March 8, 2007, Obama only asked one question - unrelated to Afghanistan.

What's more, in the midst of the primary campaign last summer - when Obama made the call to deploy extra brigades to Afghanistan, Biden said that Obama had taken a "Johnny come-lately position" on Afghanistan and was late to the debate. And Biden’s campaign manager, Luis Navarro, said at the time:
“We find it a little disingenuous that Sen. Obama is hailing this as a new bold initiative when he has neglected to join his colleagues in the Senate when the opportunities have been there to redirect our forces into Afghanistan. It’s good to see Sen. Obama has finally arrived at the right position, but this can hardly be considered bold leadership.”
Now, you're probably wondering why did Senator Biden feel the need to flip-flop in defense of the quintessential flip-flopper, Barack Obama?

One possibility [aside from the fact that this is just another opportunity for Biden to attack the Bush administration]:

He's hoping to receive a prominent post in Sen. "Johnny come-lately's" administration, if, and when Sen. "Johnny come-lately" becomes President.

The GOP Website has more on this topic, but they don't seem to mention the statement issued by Senator Biden's campaign manager, Luis Navarro. Hmmm... Anybody care to remind them about it?