Joe Biden to Shrivel Up and Blow Away

How else can you read this:

Joe Biden is laying plans to significantly shrink the role of the vice presidency in Barack Obama’s White House, according to an official familiar with his thinking.

It’s not just that Biden won’t sit in on Senate Democrats’ weekly caucus meetings – a privilege Republicans afforded outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney. He won’t have an office outside the House floor, as House Speaker Dennis Hastert gave Cheney early on.

Biden will not begin every day with his own intelligence briefing before sitting in on the president’s. He will not always be the last person Obama speaks to before making a decision.

He also will not, as a transition official calls it, operate a “shadow government” within an Obama administration.

One of the few ways he will resemble Cheney is in making clear his future ambitions, or lack thereof: Biden doesn’t expect to run for president after leaving the vice-presidency, according to a transition source who was not authorized to speak on the record.

“What he has said previously is that Vice President Cheney had an overly expansive view of the vice president, almost created like a shadow government inside the White House," said the transition official familiar with Biden's role. "Vice President-elect Biden has a very strong view that the vice president’s role is to be an advisor to the president and to be a member of the president’s team, and that’s how he’s going to be in the job.”

There is a mythology on the left that says Dick Cheney was some type of evil genius who was the secret power behind the throne and Bush never made a decision without getting Cheney's blessing. Nonsense. Anyone who worked in the Bush White House will tell you that Bush was in charge, and whatever role Cheney had was granted to him by Bush.

Obama is using this mythology to ensure that Biden will be nothing more than a placeholder in his administration, the "go-to" guy for foreign funerals and not much else.

Biden really doesn't bring much to the job. He was a vocal critic of Obama and frankly, I don't think the two guys like each other very much. Given Biden's propensity for "open mouth, insert foot", I think Obama will just tuck him away in some obscure office and try his best to keep him away from microphones.

It's a cute trick to try and explain the Biden disappearance by blaming it on the way Cheney operated, but they're not fooling anybody but those true believers for whom Cheney will always be the Antichrist.