Joe Biden on Rudy Guiliani: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence...

...a noun and a verb and 9/11."
These now-famous words were uttered by my man, Joe Biden, during this week's Democratic Debate on MSNBC, just after he called New York's former mayor "genuinely not qualified to be President." And for those of you not following the on-going saga, Rudy Guiliani's machine has been fighting back in a way that belies--fear. And definitely more fear than one would think from someone counted out of the nomination.

Why? Because despite the fact that in the entire two hour debate Biden, a man who sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Watergate Hearings, a man who has stood up to International War Criminals, a man who sponsored the Violence Against Women Act, a man who led the charge to put more cops on the beat in Rudy's New York and other major cities across the nation, a man who helped broker and guarantee peace in the Balkans, a man who has chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a man whose plan to bring a political solution to Iraq passed the Senate and which is vocally supported by the other Senators running for President--was given only 6 minutes to speak--spoke well and truthfully.

While his one-liner got all the headlines, and hopefully these headlines will bring people to take a closer look at Joe, he answered another question, one that Mr. Russert asked in a way to 'trap' the Senator, so brilliantly, that I'm going to ask you to take a look:

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Biden, would you pledge to the American people that Iran would not build a nuclear bomb on your watch?

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards each wiggled his or her way out of the question, essentially pledging to do what they could to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Then Russert turned to Biden, and Biden threw the question back in Russert's face.

SEN. BIDEN: I would pledge to keep us safe. If you told me, Tim -- and this is not -- this is complicated stuff. We talk about this in isolation. The fact of the matter is the Iranians may get 2.6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium; the Pakistanis have hundreds, thousands of kilograms of highly enriched uranium.

If by attacking Iran to stop them from getting 2.6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, the government in Pakistan falls, who has missiles already deployed, with nuclear weapons on them, that can already reach Israel, already reach India, then that's a bad bargain.

Presidents make wise decisions informed not by a vacuum in which they operate, by the situation they find themselves in the world. I will do all in my power to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, but I will never take my eye off the ball.

What is the greatest threat to the United States of America: 2.6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium in Tehran or an out of control Pakistan? It's not close.

(I'd like to credit Joe Traw of Iowa who posted a link on Biden For President - 2008 on Facebook to the Mother Jones website, which is where I lifted this transcription).

Tomorrow, Sunday, November 4th, 2007, Joe Biden will appear on Face The Nation. If don't catch the first broadcast, you'll be able to get it online later. In the meantime, think about this--today Pakistan's Musharraf suspended the Constitution and replaced the head of the Supreme Court of his nation. Do you follow?

Go Joe!