by Jules Witcover

For many years, it was an axiom in American politics that vice presidents, like small children at an elegant dinner party, should be seen but not heard, or even not seen at all.

That notion has steadily been eroded in recent years, particularly in the case of the latest alumnus, Dick Cheney. Behind the scenes, he wielded great influence in his eight years in office, but when he left it he began to speak out publicly in a torrent of criticism of the Obama administration.

In contrast, the man who succeeded Cheney came in with a prominent reputation for being both seen and heard. Indeed, Joe Biden assumed the vice presidency with a figurative warning sign on his back as a loose tongue. He was rated by critics a high risk for a notably cautious new president.

Biden set other tongues wagging in the administration's first days, when he publicly ribbed Chief Justice John Roberts for garbling the oath of office to President Obama, and later for essentially offering don't-fly advice during the early swine flu scare.

But Obama brushed off all the negative buzzing about Biden, and in the first year of their partnership lived up to his pre-election agreement to engage the vice president fully in the administration's business.

Obama assigned Biden oversight responsibility for the economic recovery, including liaison with the state governors, for a new middle-class task force and for shepherding the wind-down of the U.S. commitment in Iraq, as well as other key foreign-policy tasks.

Once touted as a likely future secretary of state, Biden has been cast by Obama as a teammate of the current State Department boss, Hillary Clinton, in major diplomatic chores, currently including his Middle East trip to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Biden has been a stout defender of Israel since his first visits to that country as a young senator more than 35 years ago. He arrived in Jerusalem voicing full-throated support for Israel's continued security, only to be blind-sided by the announcement of Interior Ministry plans for 1,600 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem.

The expansion, a major bone of contention between the two sides, was a most untimely harpoon in the peace initiative, and Biden immediately condemned the decision, saying it was "precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now, and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here. ... We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them."

The news broke just before Biden had dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who according to his government was also blind-sided by the timing of the announcement about the previously planned expansion. Netanyahu later called the timing "a major mishap" and an unintended one, and still later said the expansion would take place over several years.

Biden did not back down, and after a subsequent meeting the next day with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, he reiterated that the new Israeli housing expansion "undermined that very trust ... that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations."

The unanticipated development confronted Biden with a challenging moment of diplomacy, which he addressed in a disciplined, forthright and balanced manner. "As we move forward," he told Abbas, "the United States will hold both sides accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks, as this decision did."

The vice president's performance will no doubt be seen in the White House as a vindication of Obama's choice, in the face of continued derision and even ridicule of Biden's demonstrated penchant for talking too much and at times too carelessly on matters small and large.

But his wide personal association with foreign leaders across the Middle East, and his on-the-ground experience in the region as former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have given him a comfort level in the region that sustained him in this testing circumstance.

Biden's freewheeling style will always cause moments of apprehension for the administration, and exploitable moments for his critics. But it also can be a diplomatic plus on such occasions for this most unpredictable but experienced political veteran.

 

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An Engaged Vice President | Jules Witcover

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