A few posts back, I chided the "mainstream media" for their obsessive "investigations" of Sara Palin's past, which have turned up some less-than-devastating revelations about her college-hopping youth, the special treatment she may have received on a zoning matter and her receipt of free flowers and a salmon while serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. I asked, sarcastically, whether Sen. Joe Biden would undergo a similar scrubbing, even though, as a member of the senate since Richard Nixon was president, he seems to be a "known commodity."
Well, as one who likes to give credit where credit's due, I feel obligated to point out this story in today's New York Times, which does do a little gentle probing into the "real" Joe Biden, painting a portrait that doesn't quite square with the "just Joe from Scranton" persona he wants to project.
It makes the point, which I made in my post, that people in positions of power almost invariably get some perks out of the deal, whether they serve as a mayor in Alaska or a lifer in the U.S. Senate. If the individual is unscrupulous, this can obviously be corrupting. Ted Stevens serves as the most recent case in point. But it's important, in the witch hunt atmosphere that prevails post-Abramoff, that we keep things in perspective, and don't go around tarring all politicians, and otherwise upstanding people, with the same dark stain.
So, yes, Joe Biden got some media scrubbing -- though not the kind of behind-the-ears scrubbing Palin is getting.
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