Poor Joe.
He simply can’t get any respect.
In any other case, a few of his mates and colleagues might need proven up when Joe Biden was honored on the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston the opposite evening.
However they didn’t. They had been hiding out elsewhere.
Politics is a enterprise of doing favors for mates. It is usually a chilly and merciless enterprise.
Joe Biden can’t do his mates’ favors anymore. So, who wants him? If you end up out, you’re out.
Which supplies added that means to the outdated Capitol Hill adage that, “If you desire a pal in Washington, get a canine.”
So, if the president, or former president, seemed out on the crowd on the Kennedy Institute anticipating to see fellow Democrats whom he had befriended and favored through the years, he needed to be sorely disenchanted.
They weren’t there.
It isn’t that Joe Biden, 82, who’s coping with prostate most cancers and psychological acuity challenges, wanted one other Democrat honor for his many years of public service. He has lots of these.
What he wants are mates.
Given the way in which he has virtually been shunned and shunted apart by Democrat Social gathering leaders after deciding to not search reelection, it was good to be invited to a reception someplace and be offered with a lifetime achievement award.
Which was higher than getting the worst president in trendy historical past award, which different, extra goal social or political establishments might need given him.
That apart, he was acquired warmly by those that attended, together with Vicki Kennedy, widow of the late Ted Kennedy, after whom the institute and award are named.
Kennedy died in 2009 at age 77. He and Biden had served collectively carefully within the U.S. Senate for years earlier than Biden turned vp underneath President Barack Obama.
Biden, in his quick acceptance speech, referred to as on Democrats to battle for democracy the way in which Kennedy did. With out mentioning President Donald Trump by identify, Biden stated, “It’s time to get reengaged. Struggle like hell. Struggle like Teddy would battle. That’s what we owe one another. Stand up. America, rise up now.”
Folks did rise up, apart from his former political allies, who selected to not attend, thereby giving Biden the chilly shoulder.
Whereas former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was there, present Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was not.
Walsh, who was a Biden Cupboard member as Secretary of Labor, additionally acquired an award.
Nonetheless, former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry, who additionally served in Biden’s Cupboard as Local weather Czar – in addition to within the Senate with Biden earlier than that — was a no-show, as was Kerry’s Martha’s Winery neighbor Barack Obama, Biden’s former boss.
Gov. Maura Healey, a one-time sturdy Biden supporter, was additionally notable by her absence. Nor did the governor, as protocol or respect dictates, greet the previous president on the Logan Airport. Wu didn’t both.
Additionally snubbing Biden had been former supporters Elizabeth Warren and Eddie Markey, each of whom, as U.S. senators, slobbered over Biden when he was within the White Home.
Markey is being challenged for reelection within the 2026 Democrat major by Rep. Seth Moulton of Salem, who didn’t attend the occasion both.
Nor did Reps. Stephen Lynch or Ayanna Pressley present up, regardless that each symbolize components of Boston the place the Columbia Level occasion was held.
They had been joined of their absence by all the opposite six members of the Congressional delegation who didn’t present up both.
It’s nearly as if, when invited, they stated, “Joe? Joe who?”
Get misplaced.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas will be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
