NYT: Obama "lagging" on Biden...

Yeah...

This is weird.

When I'm calling bull!@#$, I'm usually calling out Fox or the Murdoch St. Journal (which I recognize as being one in the same)...

But here I am calling out the Grey Lady...

Like I said, weird.

This from this morning's article For Biden, No Portfolio but the Role of a Counselor:

So far, Mr. Biden has not been given a defined portfolio, the way Al Gore was given the environment and technology in 1992. And Mr. Obama’s aides say they do not expect Mr. Biden to assume the kind of muscular role that Vice President Dick Cheney has played over the last eight years, although he is expected to put out a number of fires.

Funny. I seem to recall a Newsweek Magazine Article, written by Jonathan Alter (who I trust waaay more now than Helene Cooper) from back in October:

Biden, who had stayed neutral in the Democratic primaries after dropping out in January, told Obama that he was "ready to be second fiddle" and sought no specific portfolio—but only if he got a guaranteed hourlong, one-on-one session with the president every week (like Al Gore's lunches with Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush's with Ronald Reagan) and a presence at all important meetings. Obama said yes, that he wanted him for his judgment and for his help in enacting a big legislative agenda. And so the job was defined: "My role will be to say, 'Boss, here's the way I'd go about it'."

What Alter said does eventually make its way into the New York Times piece:

Mr. Biden is spending most weekdays in Chicago, where he stays in a hotel and has lunch once a week with Mr. Obama. During the days, Mr. Biden, Mr. Obama and a coterie of advisers are in the team’s transition offices, going through possible hires. Mr. Biden has been involved in cabinet and policy decisions, offering advice to the president-elect, aides said.

Mr. Obama’s aides say Mr. Biden has backed the decision to appoint Mrs. Clinton secretary of state. “If he had made an argument against it, it would have carried a lot of weight,” a senior aide to the transition said. “He was totally in support of it.”

But in the end, what I find objectionable is Helene Cooper's desire to make something out of nothing, to force drama into a benign process piece.

"So far, Mr. Biden has not been given a portfolio".  Well, according to Newsweek he didn't ask for one.

So far, it looks like the arrangement worked out between Obama and Biden is working as promised.

If I want drama, I've got the Clintons for that.