I’d like to share a story on Senator Joe Biden that happened 31
years ago, and may be relevant to Biden’s Thursday evening debate
with Paul Ryan. It involved Biden’s international humiliation of a
good man, and it became a habit for Biden. I’m confident Biden may
aim to repeat the performance with Paul Ryan in the
vice-presidential debate, looking to “Quayle” the youthful
Wisconsin congressman in a way worse than Lloyd Bentsen might have
done.
The “good man” I’m referring to is William P. “Bill” Clark, also
known as Judge Clark. Clark, now 80 years old, living in Paso
Robles, California, was
Ronald Reagan’s confidant, closest aide, and single most
important adviser in the effort to take down the Soviet Union. He
was widely heralded from left to right, from the likes of Maureen
Dowd to Lou Cannon to Edmund Morris to
Cap Weinberger to
Michael Reagan. But before Clark could do the crucial work he
did for President Reagan, he had to survive confirmation hearings
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February 1981.
Reagan had just succeeded in convincing Clark to give up his
California Supreme Court seat — to which Governor Reagan had
appointed him — to help him come to Washington to run the State
Department. Reagan wanted an “America Desk” at State, someone loyal
who could ensure the department would be an asset, not a liability.
He needed a second-in-command there to help keep an eye on
Secretary of State Al Haig. He wanted someone who was not known
as a foreign-policy expert but was a sure-thing to get things done,
to keep order, and to truly run the department. He knew he could
trust Clark completely.
Unfortunately for Clark, the post required Senate approval,
where, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a grinning Joe
Biden was poised to embarrass Reagan’s new guy. So, on February 2,
1981, Clark took
questions from the senators, including Biden, who launched into
what the Washington Post would call, “The Interrogation of
Justice Clark.”
Biden began by patronizing Clark for his ability to put himself
through school as the son of a poor rancher. “I, for one, think it
admirable the way in which you have conducted yourself in getting
to and through school,” began Biden. “I have a great deal of
admiration for you.”
Biden then expressed his admiration by placing Clark in the
stockade, asking him a series of specific questions he knew the
judge would not be able to answer.
“I sincerely hope you can answer these questions,” averred
Biden. “Let me begin with southern Africa — not South Africa, but
southern Africa, such as Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique,
Angola and so on…. Can you tell me who is the prime minister of
South Africa?” Clark answered: “No, sir, I cannot.”
As the cameras clicked and the evening-news crews started
salivating, Biden pressed on: “Can you tell me who the prime
minister of Zimbabwe is?” Clark: “It would be a guess.”
Senator Biden then ran through other policy specifics, curiously
avoiding the Soviet-Cold
War issues that Clark knew well. As he did, Biden inter-mixed
his questions with feigned apologies. Biden: “I really don’t like
doing this, Justice Clark, but I don’t know how else to get at the
point.” And a second time:
I really apologize, Mr. Justice. I know you are on the spot, and
I don’t know how else I can do my job. This is one of the most
distasteful question-and-answer periods in which I have
participated. And, by the way, no one but me, not my staff,
suggested that I use this approach… But this issue with regard to
you, justice, in my opinion, is not whether or not you are bright.
I think you are a bright man…. I have incredible regard for you. I
really mean that.
As this went on, Clark’s family, which sat nearby, absorbed each
Biden jab like a punch to the gut. “I was absolutely fried,
furious,” said Clark’s son Colin. “I turned purple with rage.”
Another son who was there, Pete, a tough, literal cowboy, intensely
proud of his father, to this day recalls how the episode “still
hurts.”
In fact, Biden “admired” Clark so much, with such “incredible
regard,” that he finished the grilling by announcing that he would
not be supporting his nomination.
For his part, Clark was a paragon of restraint and civility,
calmly telling Biden, “I respect that position, senator,” before
adding, “I just have one point to make.” Clark then explained, as
he had in his opening statement, that President Reagan did not
bring him on board as a policy expert, particularly on individual
issue areas. “Regarding making policy,” said Clark, “I have
discussed this with both the president and the secretary [Al Haig].
Perhaps I did not make that clear, or maybe you came in a little
after my description of what we consider to be the role. My
position will not be involved in making policy, but rather in
coordinating and implementing in the position as deputy secretary
of state.”
Clark had indeed made that clear, as did the other senators, who
jumped in to reiterate the fact. Even the ultra-liberal
Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) rushed to Clark’s defense. Biden
didn’t care.
The damage to Clark was done. Joe Biden may have been “sorry,
Judge, really,” but he had so humiliated Clark that the judge
became the laughing stock of the world, as the international press
lampooned him. Most appreciative of Biden’s performance were the
Soviets, who turned Biden’s work into basically a TASS press
release.
The press feeding frenzy abated momentarily on February 24, when
Clark’s appointment came before the full Senate, which easily
approved his nomination.
Clark stoically took the beating. A devout man, he seems to have
seen it as his cross to bear, as some overdue suffering that he
ought to be willing to take. And his humility was such that he
never publicly shared Biden’s off-camera, quasi-apology to him,
which he told to me (his
biographer) many years later: Biden casually pulled Clark aside
in the hallway, away from reporters, smirked, slapped him on the
back, and said, “Hey, Judge, no hard feelings…. And don’t worry: I
didn’t know the answers to those questions either.”
This would hardly be the first time that Senator Biden did this
sort of thing. He would do similar things to
Ed Meese — with Meese’s wife and kids looking on — when Meese
was recommended as attorney general under Reagan, and also to
Clarence Thomas, when Thomas was recommended for the Supreme
Court. Thomas recounts Biden’s treatment of him in his memoirs.
There, too, Biden finished the notorious “high-tech lynching” of
Thomas with the same no-hard-feelings smile. Call it the Biden
Treatment.
That brings me to
Paul Ryan, the young running mate of
Mitt Romney. What might Paul Ryan expect from a grinning Joe
Biden this Thursday evening? My advice is that Ryan be ready for
some embarrassing shots. Given that Biden fancies himself a
foreign-policy expert, whereas Ryan is not, Ryan might want to
prepare for Biden peppering him with questions like those he posed
to Bill Clark — with a salivating press looking on. If that
happens, Ryan should quickly remind Biden that (this time) it isn’t
his job to ask the questions. Or, maybe Ryan could ask Biden if
knows the current level of the federal debt, especially over the
last four years.
