Another Dirty Old Man For President?

Supposedly "everyone" knows that Biden is a dirty handsy old man who doesn't even understand what it means to be respectful of women he comes in close proximity to. But "everyone" doesn't really mean every person, of course. It just means people who care enough of insider politics to pay close attention. Biden must have been contemplating what would hit him-- and how much apologizing he would be forced to do-- in a #MeToo era. (I can hardly wait to see him and Kirsten Gillibrand debate it face to face... if she dares.) But last week, former Nevada legislator Lucy Flores wrote a first person account how creepy "Uncle Joe" Biden was when he was "helping" her campaign for Lieutenant Governor a couple of years ago.

This is how she described the dirty old man who is trying to be president again based on his newish image as the Obama guy. "And we have no prior relationship. We’re not friends. There’s no relationship whatsoever. And then he begins to not only touch me but get really inappropriately close. And then lean in, and smell my hair and kiss my head... He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head. My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused... I just froze. I didn’t know what to do. Because again the only thing that you’re processing is that there is a very powerful man standing next to you. That person is there to campaign on your behalf and you just don’t know how to respond. I mean that’s how I felt. I literally just didn’t even know what to do other than just wish the moment away."

Biden's spokesperson-- he rarely speaks for himself for some reason-- said he can't recall the incident. Lucy Flores does speak for herself and she said that "He probably doesn’t remember the interaction. I would argue that he is so used to behaving in that way that it is no big deal."

On Friday evening at Vox, Laura McGann reminded her readers that Lucy Flores is correct. Biden's got a long history of touching women inappropriately and that the media gave him a pass for years but surely won't if he runs for president. It's always "Biden being Biden" and women aren't going to accept that this year or next.

Biden, 76, arrived in Washington at the age of 30. His substantial public record includes a mixed history on women’s issues, a legacy that makes his in-person conduct even more worthy of discussion.

Lisa Lerer unpacked his history on abortion for the New York Times, reporting that Biden, who is now pro-abortion rights, has not been a solid liberal on the issue for his whole career.

In the Reagan era, Biden voted for a bill in committee that the National Abortion Rights Action League called “the most devastating attack yet on abortion rights.” Biden, who is Catholic, said at the time: “I’m probably a victim, or a product, however you want to phrase it, of my background.” He called the decision “the single most difficult vote I’ve cast as a U.S. senator.”

Biden also held the opinion that the Supreme Court went “too far” in deciding Roe v. Wade. In an interview in 1974, he said he did not think a woman should have the “sole right to say what should happen to her body.”

Biden declined to speak with Lerer for her article, so we don’t know exactly how and why he evolved on Roe. A spokesperson for Biden did not respond to an email asking for comment.

In his years in Washington, though, Biden has voted for pro-abortion rights bills. He’s championed the Violence Against Women Act. And he’s spoken forcefully about the problem of sexual violence.

If Biden runs, he’ll occupy a lane in the Democratic primary as the “normal” candidate-- a likable white guy who won’t lose it on Twitter, or pander to Russia, or throw children in cages at the border.

As Democrats grapple with the intense desire to beat Trump in 2020, many are anxious that a woman will have a tough time beating him because of sexist attitudes still held by some voters. Perhaps, the thinking goes, it’s better to go with the kind of leader that Americans are used to. Biden, who was in office for eight years under Obama, could fit that bill.

But Biden would still have to present a clear contrast to Trump. While Biden has not been accused of sexual assault (as Trump has a dozen times) and there are no tapes of Biden on the Internet joking about grabbing women by the genitals, there are tapes of Biden behaving inappropriately. One man’s behavior is far worse, but that doesn’t excuse the other.

Democrats are conflicted about what to do about this category of behavior. It’s not the same as what other men of the #MeToo movement have bee accused of, but it’s also not what liberals want to endorse. Sen. Al Franken’s resignation is still controversial for this reason. Some Democrats feel the party is putting itself at a disadvantage against Republicans, who let the president get away with far worse than any accusation Franken faced.

Flores confronts the issue of whether some bad behavior is okay, forcing us to consider what these seemingly small incidents are really like. “The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners-- and I felt powerless to do anything about it.”

The Democratic Party is more than half women. More women than ever in history ran as Democrats in the 2018 elections-- and won. They outperformed their male peers. They were central to Democrats retaking the House. Women are leading the sustained resistance to Trump. The party should be committed to making sure that women and girls participate in government and politics to their fullest potential. The party needs them.

On Saturday, Marc Caputo, writing for Politico, noted Status Quo Joe "is enduring the roughest stretch of any candidate in the Democratic presidential primary, and he’s not even a candidate yet. In a two-week period where his attempts to smooth a path into the 2020 race only seemed to underscore the obstacles confronting his prospective candidacy, the former vice president got a concentrated dose of what’s in store for him if he chooses to embark on a third run for the White House.

“Biden’s record is at odds with where the Democratic party is in 2020,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant who advised Cynthia Nixon's primary campaign against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “Primaries are tough, and Joe Biden, when you’re this old and running for president, you have a pretty long record for people to go through.

Biden says he doesn't recall grabbing anyone's boobs intentionally

[A] picture from the event also shows Biden also burying his nose in the hair of actress and activist Eva Longoria. Katz, a former staffer in the U.S. Senate-- where Biden had served for 36 years before becoming President Obama’s vice president in 2009-- said it was easy to believe Flores’ accusations.

“The thing that’s so challenging for team Biden is that everything that Lucy Flores said seems very, very true,” Katz said. “There’s literally highlight reels of Biden, whether it’s with world leaders or granddaughters of incoming members of Congress, doing things that seem a little off-- on camera.”

...Republicans and Democrats alike are already laying the groundwork to face Biden by examining the business deals of his son, Hunter Biden, when Biden was vice president. It’s an issue of such grave concern to Joe Biden, who lost his other son Beau Biden to cancer, that he has told close associates it’s a major factor in deciding whether to run.

To start off the week, the conservative website One America News Network featured a report Monday about Hunter Biden’s ties to a Ukrainian oligarch and a natural-gas company in 2014, an arrangement that was also criticized a year later in a New York Times editorial.

As with the allegations lodged by Flores against Biden, the former vice president must not only determine how to respond, but also how to answer critics who will say Hunter Biden’s business interests make it harder for Biden as a nominee to contrast his record with Trump on the question of ties to Russia.

Trump’s defenders, who have blamed Ukrainian intelligence for some of the Trump-Russia stories, say they look forward to making Democrats pay for it if and when Biden enters the race.

“I’m pretty confident Joe Biden will be called out by his presidential primary competitors for his son getting rich off a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch’s gas company,” said Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign consultant and top Trump defender.

He pointed to a connection with Trump’s former campaign manager that should make Democrats uneasy.

“Wait till they find out Hunter Biden’s oligarch is from the same political party Paul Manafort consulted in Ukraine,” he said. “Old ‘Lunch Bucket Joe’ would be smart to not even get in the race.”

Elizabeth Warren says Biden's got to answer for his inappropriate behavior. All 40 years worth?