Barney Frank On Biden: 'He Can't Keep His Mouth Shut Or His Hands To Himself'
Source: TPM
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said Tuesday that Vice President Joe Biden could be a great politician, if only he could keep his hands to himself.
"Joe is his own worst enemy," Frank said during an interview on Ora's "PoliticKING with Larry King" show. "He can't keep his mouth shut or his hands to himself."
He said that Biden is "a very bright guy" with "good values." But the vice president's lack of self-discipline keeps getting the best of him, Frank said.
"It's out of good intentions, but I think he's unfortunately diminished people's perceptions of his abilities," he said.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/barney-frank-biden-hands-to-himself
Video of interview at link to article.
= new reply since forum marked as read
He was on The Nightly Show a week or two ago.
edit: I wonder if he's up to something. 
!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/17/387035292/joe-biden-gets-a-bit-too-close-to-new-secretary-of-defenses-wife
And Barney is grumpy as hell with people.
Whatever. Sell your book. Barney's partner is definitely his better half, at least interpersonally.
keeping their hands to themselves or shutting their mouths.
Just don't go there, Barney. Stay out of that lane, sir! 
oh wait, are you still that way? 
To a point kinda. 
of Vice President Biden. I know what all Biden has been doing for our Country for 7 years now.. I've been paying attention.
Not just buying into soundbites/bytes from the US corpmediawhore and pols with an agenda. FO
I don't even know why he brought Biden up - I have no idea what the overall context was. I did hear that he said great things about Warren, and pretty good things about HRC. So, it could have been in the context of 2016 - where Biden has not ruled running.
I hate things said that diminish serious people, who have made and are working extremely hard making contributions for the country. One person, who for years had to deal with that, was Barney Frank, who was attacked for many personal flaws in addition to the right attacking him because he is gay. In spite of all that noise, he was able to work with Democrats and Republicans over the years as a very effective, brilliant law maker, but it had to have some cost.
As to Biden's contributions to the Obama administration, I think that it may be at least a generation before there can be the kind of objective analysis that really can look at what happened 2009-2017. Before then, I expect we will get many many books - written from many vantages, each trying to distance the writer from anything considered a failure and claiming maximum credit for anything potentially considered an accomplishment. (Note we already have books/interviews from HRC, Gates, Panetta - and likely more that I have forgotten.) Long after these books, written with a vested interest to enhance the author's legacy, there will be serious scholarly books written.
At this point, we know many things that Biden was assigned as the lead on - including Iraq (2009 - at least 2012), managing many elements of the stimulus program. To me, it seems that Biden's strongest legacy will be - surprisingly, given his decades on SFRC - on what he helped Obama do domestically (though not on the signature healthcare issue)
The one thing that seems almost a lost opportunity is that he seemed to have been constrained from doing the things he recommended for Iraq in 2007 - ie a regional conference that could have transformed Iraq to a country with three relatively autonomous sections - Sunni, Kurd and Shiite. However, he - not HRC - was given the lead on Iraq - so an answered question is did Biden himself reject what had been his 2007 position. (Even though her people have tried to take BOTH credit and distance her from how things were done - ie She claims to have led in ending the two wars (Iraq, Afghanistan), but she personally in her Goldberg Atlantic article argued that what we did in Iraq and Syria was something she argued against - preferring a more hawkish position. ( We do know that Biden was against the Afghan surge and HRC for it -- and it pretty much failed. (I think the way we are leading against ISIS is very informed by the failure of that surge -- most noticeably in arguing that it should not be US troops on the ground. This is NOT just so we are spared the deaths, but it was clear in Afghanistan that we COULD clear areas, but in many areas, the Afghanis were not able to keep and govern the areas when the US withdrew. )
However, the ONE thing that I am 100% certain of is that when the accomplishments and mistakes are seriously assessed, NO ONE will spend a lot of time arguing that Biden hugged too many women or that he could not control his mouth. The ONLY times the latter would matter is if they made him ineffective in working with some leader. The only example for which I ever heard that said was Kharzi - but there he is among a LONG list of Americans, including the top diplomat Holbrooke. (In reality the only American who really succeeded on getting him to do anything big we wanted was John Kerry -who with enormous effort got him to follow his country's election law (something HRC claims SHE did in her book) and to negotiate a SOFA that was then taken by Kharzi to the Loyal Jurga.) I doubt ANY historian would blame Biden for not being able to work with Kharzi - they will blame Kharzi.
I would note that Frank was speaking of as a "politician". While admitting that Biden is loquacious, I think BOTH of these issues are media driven. Every politician misspeaks - especially in a campaign where they speak up to 16 hours a day. Whether they are labeled "not spontaneous", " wooden", "gaffe prone" or "aloof" OR ("well spoken" "thoughtful"
, "careful to not misstate things" "on message" or ( "having gravitas" dignified) --- pair the negative with the positive may tell more about the media than the candidate. As to the hugging - there are cultural differences and, again, different people are treated differently. ie When Bill Clinton (even with all his baggage) was hugging everyone he met - it showed that he was connected, outgoing, charismatic and generally well loved by the media. Yet, Biden, with absolutely NO such scandal ever in his entire career is called "creepy" recently when swearing a new Senator in? Biden may be many things, but he is a good family man.
work. We need these people.. there's too many in power who aren't.
I've seen it too many times with leaders like John Kerry and President Obama.. trying to be reduced to a "purple band aid" or a "Kenyan" not eligible to run for POTUS(and yes US corpmediawhore Driven). Or VP Joe Biden.. I've seen so much that he and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, have accomplished over the years on The Obama Diary.
Shame on Barney Frank for doing to the Veep what's been done to him by the rwingers.
Just one of the many pics I love of Biden and the President in Office..
President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a “Let’s Move!” video taping on the Colonnade of the White House, Feb. 21, 2014 (Photo by Pete Souza)
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/02/21/rise-and-shine-1016/
Anyway, President Obama is the hugger in Chief!
The Indian prime minister broke with protocol to greet and bear hug Obama as he landed at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi. Usually, the prime minister meets foreign leaders at a formal ceremony at the presidential palace.
http://qz.com/332780/narendra-modi-greeted-and-hugged-barack-obama-all-is-forgiven/
Mahalo Karyn.. I enjoyed reading your analysis on this!
Mahalo DC
Plus, there was a sex ring being run out of his apartment in DC. Barney said it was all his roommate, and he didn't know anything about it. Does anyone here remember this crap?
There are a myriad of photos of Biden putting his hands on women that were as cringe worthy as Bush massaging Angela Merkel's shoulders. One of those pics was posted above. It is not appropriate in a professional setting for a man to touch a woman in the way he has done in more than one occasion. I know that he means well, but he should limit himself to handshakes, hugs and a kiss on the cheek are OK when warranted. His mouth has also ran away from him multiple times.
Biden is a good man, but sometimes his exuberance works against him.
