President Obama is so "distracted by his vice president's indiscipline" that he has been forced to rebuke privately Vice President Joe Biden, according to a new book by Newsweek journalist Richard Wolffe, who interviewed Obama a dozen times.
"He can't keep his mouth shut," Wolffe quotes a "senior Obama aide" as saying of the gaffe-prone Biden in "Renegade: The Making of a President," set for release June 2.
As evidence, Wolffe reports that during the presidential transition period, Biden insulted Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest friends and confidantes. Jarrett had been considered Obama's top choice to fill his vacated Senate seat in Illinois, but took herself out of the running just hours after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly told a wiretapped conference call he would not heed any Obama recommendation without a payoff.
"Soon after Jarrett pulled out of consideration for the Senate seat, the senior transition team met to discuss cabinet picks," Wolffe writes. "Biden tried to compliment Jarrett after one contribution. 'You should be in the Senate,' he quipped. After the meeting, as everyone returned to their offices, Obama stopped Biden to warn him not to say anything like that again. 'It's not funny,' he told him."
We all knew that Biden would be a frequent problem for Obama. Way back when he was chosen for VP I wrote this:
Biden is a media whore. The most dangerous place in the world is not between a mother bear and her cubs but between a camera and Joe Biden. He'll be getting lots of attention and will give all of us bloggers lots to write about. I'm not sure how the Obamessiah is going to react to sharing the spotlight.
So far I'd say he's lived up to expectations.
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