Biden and Leahy get the most impressive Democrats of the week award -

[jillan]

But the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award goes to... it's a tie!... Joe Biden and Patrick Leahy. Senator (and presidential candidate) Joe Biden wins for being first out of the box last week to use the words "Special Counsel" (which last week's column heavily advised doing). Interviewed on ABC last Sunday, Biden called for a Special Counsel to be appointed to look into the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes. He was the first presidential candidate to do so, and to date only one other (Edwards) is in the news for agreeing with Biden. This is the difference between leadership and poll-testing popular stances. Clinton and Obama are also sitting Senators, and there's nothing stopping them from making bold moves such as this, but they always seem to come from Joe Biden. For those of you counting MIDOTW awards, out of a total of seven awards given so far, Biden is now tied with Chris Dodd (2 each), while the entire rest of the Democratic field has exactly zero among them. So join me in saying: "Way to go, Joe!"

That's my candidate:toast:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/friday-talking-points-vo_b_76911.html

[1corona4u]

1. Imagine that...

Joe, the first...;-)

On edit;; I think this calls for a better emoticon;

[jillan]

2. Imagine that -

Biden being right again :)

[1corona4u]

3. Again?

Don't you mean; still? ;-)

[jillan]

5. kinda sets the record straight - if ya know what I mean.

;)

[1corona4u]

12. LOL, eh, yeah, I do...

;-)

[Steely_Dan]

4. I Find It Amazing....

that Joe continues his job in the Senate AND is running for President. Amazing man.

-P

[cali]

6. You'd be wiser not to pair him with Pat Leahy

Around DU, Leahy 's not terribly well thought of. But good for Joe, someone I'm liking more and more.

[1corona4u]

8. The OP didn't pair him with Leahy....

Huffington Post did.

[cali]

14. Yes, I realize that but the OP posted it

and I guess I should have been clearer. I'm disgusted with DUers slagging off on Leahy. He's one of the most liberal activist Senators and has been doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting on vital issues. And unlike Biden, he didn't fall for the IWR crap. In fact, his speech on the eve of the vote is nothing short of prescient.

[jillan]

9. Yeah - I thought of that - but that's how it was written.

And I decided to post it as it is, rather than cherry pick the info :)

[cali]

16. so sad

that you even thought of it. If Joe had Pat Leahy's record, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. I like Joe Biden, but he's not even close to being the liberal activist Leahy is.

[Jillian]

18. actually - look at where Biden falls

compared to Leahy



Biden is more of a populist than Leahy.

Actually - Leahy is another one of my favorite Senators. He had the Grateful Dead play at a fundraiser. How cool is that? :P
But that's not the only reason I like him :P

source:
http://www.issues2000.org/senate/Patrick_Leahy.htm

[cali]

19. I don't much go for all the little charts and graphs of politicians

or even the lists. I look at individual votes and deciding which votes are the most important. I like Biden, but he voted for the IWR, and as Leahy said when he beseeched his colleagues not to vote for it, it's the most important vote of their Senate careers.

[1corona4u]

20. I think they use their votes to calculate those charts,

don't they?

[cali]

25. Yeah, but do they weight votes as to importance? Of course not.

I consider some votes of greater importance than others, and I consider the IWR vote to be in class of its own.

[skipos]

22. There isn't a single candidate who hasn't had some bad votes & ideas imo

While Biden (and most of the other Presidential candidates) supported the war, and the bankruptcy bill, Kucinich was a rabid anti-choicer and more recently had that horrible Ron Paul as vice-president idea.

Looking at the big picture: experience, respect from foriegn leaders, enough respect from the whole political spectrum to get things done, and overall stances on the issues, Biden has emerged as the clear frontrunner to me. There are definitely things I like about the other candidates as well, but Biden is the most well rounded from my analysis.

[jillan]

23. Biden's vote for IWR was a huge huge mistake. He writes about it in his book.

He wasn't going to vote for it.

But being the chairman of the SFRC he was in a meeting with Bush. Cheney, Powell and others.

Biden looked Bush straight in the eye and said (paraphrasing here) that the only way he would vote for it is if bush promised him that he would exhaust all other options before going to war. Bush looked him in the eye and promised.

I know - he still shouldn't have voted for it. His biggest mistake was to trust Bush. And he will never do that again - that's why he has been so outspoken on Kyl/Lieberman, Iran, torture, the destruction of the CIA tapes - etc.

[cali]

27. I know that. And it's one of the reasons I cut Biden some slack

on it. However, that really wasn't my point anyway. I just consider it ironic that Leahy is so ill thought of at DU that you thought twice about posting something linking Biden's name with Leahy's. I think it says something about a certain mentality here. And it's not something good.

[fascisthunter]

7. Hey Biden Supporters!

Not a bad candidate....

from a Kuch Supporter

[jillan]

10. I like Kuch too!

[NI4NI]

17. Back at you!

Your man got plenty guts, and some good ideas! :toast:

[Eurobabe]

11. Go JOE!!

I can't say it enough. With all these other piss-ant mudslinging contests going on at the moment. :eyes:

[NI4NI]

13. Way To Go, JOE!

Did HuffPo mention who and how many decide on that? Leahy is a good man also!

on edit: never mind, I thought it may have been a Dem Party thing.

[rndmprsn]

15. here here...biden must be called out...

for his leadership in this and many other matters, i'm leaning towards edwards...but i have always liked joe biden, good for him.

[gateley]

21. K&R Cool for Joe!

[rucky]

24. Talk is cheap. It's all about ACTION

I don't care about what you say you plan to do - show me what you've done.

[Frustratedlady]

26. Good for Joe! I know people are disappointed in Leahy, Conyers, et al., but...

hang in there. We are getting to be too much of a fastfood society. We want everything NOW. So, we're disappointed they haven't nailed some hides to the barn wall, so what? Leahy is working on it and hopefully gaining ground. I assume Conyers is, too. We have to remember that the opponents are running double speed and destroying evidence to keep from being nailed. They also have to have long enough nails to finish the job once we get the hammers up and ready. The wheels of justice, and all that good stuff.

Let them pile up the subpoenas, pull out the documents that haven't been destroyed and line up the witnesses who will come forth once the pieces start falling together, because this administration is going to fall apart.

Our guys aren't going to let these criminals get away. I have to believe that.

Go, Joe!!! Go, Leahy!!!

[jillan]

28. kickin for the nite crowd.

[lyonn]

29. Most disappointing Dem of the Week, Harry Reid

Allowing a bill to come to the floor concerning immunity for the companies that allowed our conversations to be tapped into, recorded. Dodd puts hold on bill and Reid is going to ignore, refuse to allow the hold.

Reid is a Lieberman in the making it seems.

[1corona4u]

30. k

[ThomWV]

31. K&R

[Jennifer C]

32. Way to go, Joe!!

:toast: