I detest Joe Biden almost as much as Joe Lieberman. Biden, whose allegiance to MBNA and the Bankruptcy Abortion makes him as unviable as presidential candidate could ever be, at least in a progressive and fair Democratic party is now trying to look and sound like presidential material.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee aides debated last Tuesday whether to call deposed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to the hearing table for a public flogging. The decision was no -- at least for now. Later that day, I bumped into the incoming committee chairman, presidential hopeful Joseph R. Biden Jr. He said that while there was "extraordinary malfeasance" born of the Iraq crisis, he was planning to stay clear of all that. "That's looking backward," he said. "I'm in the 'action plan' department."

Biden expressed concern about the inquisitorial zeal of some of his "friends in the House," stressing that the key for both chambers will be "attaching all investigations to the broadest public purpose."

I'm wondering if MBNA Joe's "action plan" might have been you know, plagiarized, from the notes of the 1600 Crew, you know, do nothing; sound Preznitial, and hope the media fawns all over you for your "resoluteness". After all, Bought-and-paid-for Biden is no stranger to stealing ideas and calling them his own, even if they're proven to be bullshit, or bat-shit crazy.

And while all this proceeds, what about those show horses? Well, they'll steer clear of the hearings and, as one senator recently quipped, "stay away from past-tense words like 'woulda, coulda, or shoulda' " as they develop their action plans. But once the 2008 campaign season heats up, they'll choose among the coming year's subpoena fest for the sharpest disclosures, and wield them in electoral battle.